Sidney Camm must be turning in his grave…
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Sad day…
http://www.channel4.com/news/f...for-harrier-jump-jet
Saw it on the news at lunchtime, I think it is madness to get rid of them without having the replacement (Joint Strike Fighter) ready to take on the roles of the harrier.
The JSF is expected to be in service by 2020 so we won't have a VTOL aircraft with the offensive capability of the harrier in either the RAF or the FAA for up to ten years, it's madness, absolute bloody madness.
BBC Report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12003381
The Harrier was and will be the last military aircraft to be designed and built by us and with the BAE redundancies we will have lost the ability to ever make cutting edge aircraft from scratch again…
Iconic Aircraft, I wonder if they will let the BBMF have a couple or will they all be torched or blown to smithereens on a gunnery range…
Any Whoo it ain’t going to change so better get use to it…
Seriously, the older I get the more I get Pi##ed off about the way Britain is heading...![]()
The Tornadoes we are keeping are far more expensive to operate and have 20% less operational serviceability and reliability than the Harrier, surely a mixed force would be better than putting all our eggs in one basket.They're old, expensive to operate, and arguably as dangerous to their pilots as they are to any potential enemy.
The F-35 won't be in service with UK forces for several years, if ever. We have yet to see what further cuts this government will make before it is through.
Aircraft aren't built in single countries anymore - it's just too expensive.The Harrier was and will be the last military aircraft to be designed and built by us and with the BAE redundancies we will have lost the ability to ever make cutting edge aircraft from scratch again…
We'll see more and more internationatility in the future.
Today's aircraft are too complicated and too sophisticated to have several competitive companies (= self-reliant aerospace-industry in any country) building them.
We just can't afford that.
Too expensive, too much risk involved => risk sharing, more countries and companies involved.
It's actually pretty simple.
Sad, but simple.
Now we (UK) have no means of effectively responding to situations like the Falklands conflict what with no carriers etc... (and when we do get the new carrier(s) there will be no aircraft to fly off them with the exception of those from other nations), It would be funny had it not been so much of a tragedy in regard to the poor people losing their jobs!