British Aerospace/McDonnell Douglas AV-8B+ Harrier
One of the lessons of the Six-Day War of 1967 was that the long runways needed by contemporary fighters were vulnerable targets and could be destroyed, pinning surviving aircraft to a base they could not operate from nor escape. With this in mind, Hawker-Siddeley began research into a vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) aircraft, the P.1127 Kestrel, which would use a revolutionary new engine—the Rolls-Royce Pegasus, which used vectored thrust, in which nozzles were turned for regular flight or hovering. The Kestrel was proven in a series of tests, and the British Royal Air Force accepted a modified Kestrel as the Harrier GR.1.
Involved in the test process of the Kestrel and the Harrier had been the US Marine Corps, who saw potential in the idea: in cases where the Marines had to land on beaches, often airfields were hard to get to or were so badly damaged by fighting as to be useless for a time. The Harrier would allow the Marines to have air support over the beach, as Harriers could operate from small ships or from shore. The Marines would subsequently adopt the Harrier as the AV-8A. This concept of small-ship operation also led to the development of the Sea Harrier for the British Fleet Air Arm, as the United Kingdom wanted to retire its large carriers in favor of smaller “through-deck cruisers”—light carriers with Harriers aboard.
While the Harrier’s V/STOL capability was impressive and touted by some British aviation enthusiasts as the wave of the future, the early AV-8As and Harrier GR.1/3s were limited by their size and engine power: despite being the same size as the A-4 Skyhawk, the latter could carry more bombs faster and further than the AV-8A. The Harrier was notoriously unforgiving and difficult to fly; the FAA learned that the best Sea Harrier pilots were actually those who had been helicopter pilots. It was also a maintenance nightmare: to change the engine, the wings had to be removed. In an attempt to cure or mitigate these problems, British Aerospace and McDonnell Douglas embarked on a joint project to improve the Harrier, mainly with a new, larger wing and uprated engine. Defense cuts in the UK led to British Aerospace withdrawing from the project, but despite pressure from the US Navy to cancel the “Advanced Harrier” project, McDonnell Douglas persisted, converting two Harriers to YAV-8B standard, with new wings and redesigned nozzles and intakes. While performance was still not up to par, it still had increased range and more bombload.
New administrations—Margaret Thatcher’s in England and Ronald Reagan in the US—led to the British rejoining the project and more momentum, and finally, in 1981, the first AV-8B Harrier II flew. This had all of the improvements of the YAV-8B, with a new forward fuselage with a raised cockpit for better visibility, an uprated engine, heavy use of composites to lighten the weight, and leading-edge extensions of the wings. These solved the Harrier’s range and speed problems, and the AV-8B went into full production in January 1984 in the US, quickly followed by the Harrier GR.4 in the UK. Almost immediately, according to Marine requirements, work began on a dedicated night attack Harrier with FLIR infrared guidance and provision for night-vision goggles. These aircraft—unofficially referred to as “Night Attack” Harriers but retaining the basic AV-8B designation—became the baseline version, with earlier “Day Fighter” AV-8Bs converted to this standard.
Though the Sea Harrier had blooded the type in the 1982 Falklands War with phenomenal success, the first war fought by Marine AV-8Bs was the First Gulf War of 1991. Marine Harriers, operating from offshore amphibious assault ships, regular airfields, and forward operating locations, were instrumental in the Marines’ liberation of Kuwait, sustaining a 90 percent operational rate; five Harriers were shot down during the war. One complaint was that the AV-8B lacked a radar and had no long-range capability: should a Harrier get into a dogfight, it would have to rely on short-range AIM-9 Sidewinders. Subsequently, McDonnell Douglas began a long modification and update program, the so-called AV-8B+, which redesigned the nose to accept the same radar as the F-18 Hornet. This allowed the Harrier to fire the AIM-120 AMRAAM and the AGM-84 Harpoon attack missile. These updated Harriers began entering service in 1993.
Since then, AV-8Bs have served in American service in Kosovo, Afghanistan (where they were among the first aircraft in action there), and Iraq, where they were used heavily to cover the Marine assault into Baghdad. The design was also updated for British service as the Harrier GR.9, and also used in Kosovo and Afghanistan; budget cuts saw the premature retirement of the GR.9s, which have been subsequently taken up by the US Marines, though the GR.9 lacks the multimode radar of the AV-8B+. Spain and Italy have also adopted the AV-8B for use off of their light carriers—Spain’s Principe de Asturias and Italy’s Garibaldi-class; these aircraft are identical to the Marine AV-8B+. Two concerns of the original Harrier—its high accident rate and high maintenance requirements—still exist, and figured into the British retirement of their GR.9s. Nonetheless, the Harrier is scheduled to service for at least another decade, until it is replaced by the F-35C Lightning II. 323 were built and most remain in service.
AV-8B+ BuNo 164533's service history is a bit elusive. It is known that it served with VMA-211 ("Wake Island Avengers"), VMA-311 ("Tomcats"), and--weirdly enough--HMM-365 ("Blue Knights"), which was normally equipped with CH-46E Seaknights, but apparently had a small number of AV-8Bs assigned for a short time. When, exactly, it served with these units is not known. It more than likely was retired in 2016 when VMFA-211 reequipped with F-35B Lightnings, and went on display at the MCAS Yuma airpark in 2021, making it the newest addition there.
164553 carries the overall gunship gray color scheme used by Marine AV-8s at the end of their career; VMA-211's squadron badge is carried on the nose. The camouflage has been slightly marred by the birds targeting this aircraft in particular. It is displayed with two Mk 82 bombs and two LAU-10 rocket pods. For a picture taken through the fence, this turned out rather nice.
British Aerospace/McDonnell Douglas AV-8B+ Harrier
One of the lessons of the Six-Day War of 1967 was that the long runways needed by contemporary fighters were vulnerable targets and could be destroyed, pinning surviving aircraft to a base they could not operate from nor escape. With this in mind, Hawker-Siddeley began research into a vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) aircraft, the P.1127 Kestrel, which would use a revolutionary new engine—the Rolls-Royce Pegasus, which used vectored thrust, in which nozzles were turned for regular flight or hovering. The Kestrel was proven in a series of tests, and the British Royal Air Force accepted a modified Kestrel as the Harrier GR.1.
Involved in the test process of the Kestrel and the Harrier had been the US Marine Corps, who saw potential in the idea: in cases where the Marines had to land on beaches, often airfields were hard to get to or were so badly damaged by fighting as to be useless for a time. The Harrier would allow the Marines to have air support over the beach, as Harriers could operate from small ships or from shore. The Marines would subsequently adopt the Harrier as the AV-8A. This concept of small-ship operation also led to the development of the Sea Harrier for the British Fleet Air Arm, as the United Kingdom wanted to retire its large carriers in favor of smaller “through-deck cruisers”—light carriers with Harriers aboard.
While the Harrier’s V/STOL capability was impressive and touted by some British aviation enthusiasts as the wave of the future, the early AV-8As and Harrier GR.1/3s were limited by their size and engine power: despite being the same size as the A-4 Skyhawk, the latter could carry more bombs faster and further than the AV-8A. The Harrier was notoriously unforgiving and difficult to fly; the FAA learned that the best Sea Harrier pilots were actually those who had been helicopter pilots. It was also a maintenance nightmare: to change the engine, the wings had to be removed. In an attempt to cure or mitigate these problems, British Aerospace and McDonnell Douglas embarked on a joint project to improve the Harrier, mainly with a new, larger wing and uprated engine. Defense cuts in the UK led to British Aerospace withdrawing from the project, but despite pressure from the US Navy to cancel the “Advanced Harrier” project, McDonnell Douglas persisted, converting two Harriers to YAV-8B standard, with new wings and redesigned nozzles and intakes. While performance was still not up to par, it still had increased range and more bombload.
New administrations—Margaret Thatcher’s in England and Ronald Reagan in the US—led to the British rejoining the project and more momentum, and finally, in 1981, the first AV-8B Harrier II flew. This had all of the improvements of the YAV-8B, with a new forward fuselage with a raised cockpit for better visibility, an uprated engine, heavy use of composites to lighten the weight, and leading-edge extensions of the wings. These solved the Harrier’s range and speed problems, and the AV-8B went into full production in January 1984 in the US, quickly followed by the Harrier GR.4 in the UK. Almost immediately, according to Marine requirements, work began on a dedicated night attack Harrier with FLIR infrared guidance and provision for night-vision goggles. These aircraft—unofficially referred to as “Night Attack” Harriers but retaining the basic AV-8B designation—became the baseline version, with earlier “Day Fighter” AV-8Bs converted to this standard.
Though the Sea Harrier had blooded the type in the 1982 Falklands War with phenomenal success, the first war fought by Marine AV-8Bs was the First Gulf War of 1991. Marine Harriers, operating from offshore amphibious assault ships, regular airfields, and forward operating locations, were instrumental in the Marines’ liberation of Kuwait, sustaining a 90 percent operational rate; five Harriers were shot down during the war. One complaint was that the AV-8B lacked a radar and had no long-range capability: should a Harrier get into a dogfight, it would have to rely on short-range AIM-9 Sidewinders. Subsequently, McDonnell Douglas began a long modification and update program, the so-called AV-8B+, which redesigned the nose to accept the same radar as the F-18 Hornet. This allowed the Harrier to fire the AIM-120 AMRAAM and the AGM-84 Harpoon attack missile. These updated Harriers began entering service in 1993.
Since then, AV-8Bs have served in American service in Kosovo, Afghanistan (where they were among the first aircraft in action there), and Iraq, where they were used heavily to cover the Marine assault into Baghdad. The design was also updated for British service as the Harrier GR.9, and also used in Kosovo and Afghanistan; budget cuts saw the premature retirement of the GR.9s, which have been subsequently taken up by the US Marines, though the GR.9 lacks the multimode radar of the AV-8B+. Spain and Italy have also adopted the AV-8B for use off of their light carriers—Spain’s Principe de Asturias and Italy’s Garibaldi-class; these aircraft are identical to the Marine AV-8B+. Two concerns of the original Harrier—its high accident rate and high maintenance requirements—still exist, and figured into the British retirement of their GR.9s. Nonetheless, the Harrier is scheduled to service for at least another decade, until it is replaced by the F-35C Lightning II. 323 were built and most remain in service.
AV-8B+ BuNo 164533's service history is a bit elusive. It is known that it served with VMA-211 ("Wake Island Avengers"), VMA-311 ("Tomcats"), and--weirdly enough--HMM-365 ("Blue Knights"), which was normally equipped with CH-46E Seaknights, but apparently had a small number of AV-8Bs assigned for a short time. When, exactly, it served with these units is not known. It more than likely was retired in 2016 when VMFA-211 reequipped with F-35B Lightnings, and went on display at the MCAS Yuma airpark in 2021, making it the newest addition there.
164553 carries the overall gunship gray color scheme used by Marine AV-8s at the end of their career; VMA-211's squadron badge is carried on the nose. The camouflage has been slightly marred by the birds targeting this aircraft in particular. It is displayed with two Mk 82 bombs and two LAU-10 rocket pods. For a picture taken through the fence, this turned out rather nice.