As always, there is a lot of guff on this thread from our armchair experts. The Harrier had excellent serviceability at home and away on ops right to the end; spares weren't much of an issue; we rarely had jets stuck on the ground as D states; the airframes had about 10 years of life left in them; and they weren't significantly fatigued after 5 years of hard graft in Afghan. Now compare this to the serviceability figures of GR4 and Typ, both at home, in Herrick and Libya and you should get a better idea of the picture. You only have to look at the final 16-ship that took place nearly 12 months ago - approx 30 jets on the line, 16 plus a whip were launched and no spares required! Sadly though the fat lady started singing several months ago and the only consolation for the taxpayer is the US are going to buy the jets off us and we don't have to scrap them at considerable cost. If only Libya had started a year earlier...