Marcantilan wrote
On the other hand why, if the Harriers could do better,....
The points were highlighted in David Morgan's book 'Dangerous Skies'
Also see post by 'Edmund Spencer'.
Post #357
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ml#post4929686
Actually, we did try it! For a period of several days, may even have been a couple of weeks, we all carried a single 1000lb centreline bomb with a DA fuze of sorts on the way outbound from the carrier to the CAP station. The idea was to drop it over Stanley airfield at high level during the transit.
You can read about it in Sharkey's book and how it led to the greatest 'switch pigs' of the conflict. One of the difficulties in the Sea Harrier cockpit was that the 'pickle' button had several functions amongst which were missile firing, bomb release, camera run, acceptance of loft attack etc.
In the case of a bombs attack it was crucial to deselect the missiles, something Sharkey forgot during one of these bomb passes!! It also explains why John Leeming couldn't fire his missiles when behind an A4 (forgot to select) and ended up closing to one of the most spectacular guns kills of the conflict.
The Sea Harrier had absolutely no high level bomb aiming sight or capability whatsoever so the release point was ridiculously inaccurate. I have no idea where any of my bombs landed.One of the reasons Gordy Batt ended up dropping his free fall 1000lb bomb on the Narwhal was that he was carrying it after having passed over Stanley in bad weather and had been unable to sight the airfield. (Bloody good job it didn't go off!!!)'