Mr Luff told parliament: "We have agreed the sale of the final 72 Harrier aircraft frames and associated parts which will be used as a major source of spares for the US Marine Corps Harrier AV-8B fleet of aircraft.
The deal represented "a good deal both for UK taxpayers and the US government," he said. Critics say the decision to get rid of the Harriers along with the Ark Royal aircraft carrier leaves the UK without a carrier able to operate strike aircraft until The Harriers made their final flight last December. In January , U. The mission of the U. The AV-8B Harrier II can be operated from small aircraft carriers, large amphibious assault ships and simple forward operating bases.
It has participated in numerous military and humanitarian operations. The AV-8B is equipped with one centerline fuselage and six wing hardpoints, along with two fuselage stations for a 25 mm GAU cannon and ammunition pack. These hardpoints give it the ability to carry a total of 4, kg of weapons, including air-to-air, air-to-surface, and anti-ship missiles, as well as unguided and guided bombs.
It will maintain five operational squadrons until The current AV-8B active inventory consists of aircraft. There are 16 TAV-8B training aircraft, 34 night attack aircraft, and 74 radar aircraft. Volcanic activity beneath Iwo Jima, site of a defining World War II battle, is pushing sunken naval vessels to the surface.
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Capitol on Jan. The committees also found the Mar-a-Lago members exerted dominance over White House staff who were tasked with implementing While the involvement of Saudi and Israeli fighters in the same mission is significant, that development does not necessarily A SpaceX rocket carried four astronauts into orbit Wednesday night, including the th person to reach space in 60 years.
During the invasion of Iraq in , several Harriers landed on a runway 90 miles south of Baghdad to refuel and rearm. Despite its prickly design, the Harrier often demonstrated its versatility, especially once combat began and troops needed help.
The resulting attack was the worst loss of American airpower in a single incident since the Vietnam War. Of the eight Harriers at Camp Bastion during the attack six were destroyed and two were damaged. Two Marines were killed, including the commanding officer of the Harrier squadron. But in true Marine resilience, two Harriers who had survived the attack by virtue of being in Qatar returned immediately and within 36 hours, another six Harriers from another squadron deployed from the North Carolina to reach Camp Bastion to continue the CAS mission to protect Marine ground elements and ISAF forces fighting in Helmand.
Over the last year, Marine Harriers have been involved in nearly every aspect of American combat operations that have been conducted. The AV-8B, the last one being delivered in , was originally designed to have a 6,hour airframe, and those flight hours were anticipated to be exhausted by However, the Marines and the Department of the Navy began to look at it differently than just a static number of hours the plane could fly before it was expected to wear out.
It was determined that the Harrier would be able to fly well beyond the original 6,hour estimate. The Harrier inventory with this new criterion is estimated to have exhausted less than 40 percent of its useful life.
That is fantastic news for the Marines, who chose to skip a generation of airplanes—namely the FA Super Hornet—to focus instead on the arrival of the F While that decision may have been questionable, and likely wrong, the arrival of the F in the numbers they need it to will relieve the pressure on these old aircraft failing at an amazing rate.
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