Once the pride of the RAF and RN, the Harriers sit at the US “Boneyard”
Once the pride of Britain’s RAF and Royal Navy, the now stripped-down Harrier vertical take-off jump jets sit like skeletons in the famous US aircraft ‘Boneyard’ in the Arizona desert.
The iconic aircraft whose original versions first saw active service more than 40 years ago, are among some of the 72 Harriers that Britain prematurely scrapped and then sold to America for a knockdown £ 116 million last November.
They are now used for spare parts for US Harriers, which America still considers viable fighting planes.
Despite being the world’s only successful combat-tested jump jets – and at one time considered ideal for the Navy’s two new £6.2 billion aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales – the Harriers were decommissioned two years ago as part of the UK Coalition’s defence cuts.
They are due to be replaced towards the end of the decade by the US’s F-35B jump jet, which experts believe will cost as much as £200 million each – about 75 per cent more per plane than the Americans paid for Britain’s entire Harrier fleet.
The US-made jets will not be available until 2018 at the earliest, leaving Britain with two new super-carriers but no jump jets to fly from them.
The discarded Harriers make a sorry sight, parked up at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) in Tucson, Arizona, known as the world’s largest military aircraft cemetery.
More than 4,000 mothballed or retired aircraft are at the ‘Boneyard’ which has featured in Hollywood films including Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, and covers 2,600 acres of baking desert.
The site’s high altitude and arid conditions mean aircraft can be left outdoors without deteriorating too rapidly. The estimated value of its collection, including B-52 Stratofortresses, F-14 Tomcats and A-10 Thunderbolt ‘tank-busters’, is an incredible £17.5 billion. Though some areas of the base are classified as secret, the rows of aircraft have become a tourist attraction, with bus tours available to those who visit the nearby air and space museum.
When America bought Britain’s Harriers, Rear Admiral Mark Heinrich, chief of the US Navy’s supply corps, said the deal made sense because many of the British jets had recently undergone a refit – and the US already had pilots who could fly them.
‘We’re taking advantage of all the money the Brits have spent on them,’ he told a US military newspaper.
‘It’s like we’re buying a car with maybe 15,000 miles on it. These are very good platforms. And we’ve already got trained pilots.’
The US Navy, widely acknowledged as the world’s most technologically advanced, believes that the purchase of the British Harriers will allow it to keep flying its own planes into the middle of the next decade.
All planes arriving at the Boneyard go through the same process of being stripped down for storage. Guns, ejector seats and sensitive hardware are removed before the fuel system is drained.
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The UK options are still open and remain so.
The carriers will be fully operational on the completion of sea trials.
Long life to Camoron how many years do he still has in NO 10?
Just wonder because I would like to take last picture of B. palace before he sells it for scrap.
Ha ha
@3 We don't actually need carriers, though we're building two, to thwart Argentina's ambitions. A couple of Type 45's, a couple of Astute Class subs and a couple of Eurofighters are more than capable of ensuring that the Falkland Islands remain a “region of peace”. Thanks for your concern. Have a nice day ;)
However, don't worry Argentina, soon the RAF and RN will have a whole fleet of F35 II Lightnings.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxvxiX76IOw
Cool!
You're forgetting that Dany is a tactical genius in his own mind. He is willing to send wave after wave of Argentinians at the Falklands (in what vessels and how they're going to be armed he can't say), and he is willing to lose at least 10,000 of them to do so.
@3 Hey Dany. I don't like to gloat, but since it's you I'll make an exception.
Not only are we getting new cool aircraft (F35 Lightning II), and new aircraft carriers for them to fly from, but new submarines too.
news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16248301
And all this despite the recession.
Argentina's military is getting what exactly? Oh yes....Squat.
Typhoons & Tornados (out classes anything Argentina can throw into the air)
as for hoping thats an Argentine hobby, The UK acts hoping gets you nowhere as you are finding out.
as for jobs lets see UK unemployed=8.2% and falling, Arg unemployment=7.1% and rising,not much too shout about there.
However inflation Arg 9.8% and rising, UK 2.7% halved in 3 months and still falling, WAY HEY!
no money now thats funny last time i looked it was Argentina that asked for Aid and finding it hard to loan money not the UK (AAA)
I have no doubt over our future, id be more concerned about the deteriation of your own, troll.
Have a nice day!
And they still think CFK is a goddess.
[Mugs]
.
Times do change, so why didn’t they decide to update the harrier and make a modern version in the same image?
The F35 seems horrendously expensive and the technology questionable; a bloated American lemon.
you seem to knowq more than us then,
where are they gone to.
I am unaware of any Chilean Skyhawks splashed in the Atlantic. :))
@17
It may well be ok in the end, but is it good value?
The harrier was a British plane that was so good the Americans wanted it. The F35 is a mostly American plane that maybe the UK didn't really need.
Just a question for you as seems you have been working in the British MoD as a weapon expert advisers.
How are you planing to make your futures F35II (JSF) to take off and be recovered without electromagnetic catapults and arresting gears?
Because your futures carriers, to be finish in 2020 or perhaps 2025 is you are lucky, don’t have any of these required stuff.
Have you ever been thinking about that?
Do you have the billions required to spend to outfit the new carriers? That will cost more than the carrier. Ha ha
And how long will takes?
5, 6, 7 years perhaps?
Do you think that to 2030 will you be able to have all tested for combat?
Oh! Damn it may be something new like UAVs will be only used and all your planes would become useless.
Here a Brit wanna say something to you
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS_whAnYCQ4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki86x1WKPmE
F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant completed ship suitability testing aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1)
ah but=
why is there a runway/ramp on deck,mmm
and he will again recieve the correct answer .lol
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010723/RAF-fight-rough-seas-hit-French-carrier.html
Maiden flight of the British Taranis has been put back again until 2013. Taranis was originally due to fly in 2011
www.defensenews.com/article/20120620/DEFREG01/306200001/U-K-French-UAV-Contracts-May-Signed-Farnborough?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
.
7 LEPRecon said F35II (JSF) and those require MC to take off.
So as the MoD could not afford the full cost they went from Ferrari to a FIAT 500 that can takes off vertically.
“Brits got one of the biggest carrier called Ascension Island. 3800 miles (6100 km) distance, not a problem. The RAF even able to bomb Libya from UK bases”
And guess who owns the biggest carrier in the S. Atlantic of 2800km?
ha ha
Distance between Libya from London 2331km A.Island to ARG. 6100km UK from Arg. Bue 14000km from FI 15500km.
Wow you have to have a big tank eh!.
Barabap, barabap Illusion
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HS_whAnYCQ4
Ferrari to Fiat, yet again incorrect...think the F35B is a superconic aircraft , the only downside over F35C is range, but it still has greater range than old Harriers. Some nice drop tanks on it and bingo.
Cant wait for HMS Queen Elizabeth to go on its first cruise down south.
Mean time you watch out for those tommahawk cruise missles, buggers they are can fly thru windows...BANG
Come on CHOCLO this is not a huge airbase I guess there are hundreds bigger than this over ARG land.
Just a couple or Arg Missiles and all will be destroyed.
Tell me your street address and I will tell you how may trees you have in your garden.
ha ha
- 32 has stolen my thunder, what Argentine missles. And very much doubt RG Airbase is more up to date or even larger, Mount Pleasant is very large and designed for surging of resources and men into the falklands. Do the RG' s have hundreds of airbases???? really ..what and station 1 plane in each. the mighty mirage 40 years old, along with the 40 years old sky hawks, and not forgetting the Pampa jet, wow they are some special kit, i said kit!!! RG's hope to build 40 in next ten years. So to recap Mount Pleasant is a modern very large capable airbase with state of the art fighter aircraft, RG airforce is 40 years old obsolete, you hold no stand off weapons capable of hitting the airbase. Any of your old junk planes would be shot down by either a typhoon of our mighty Type 45 destroyer. Any RG airfield that a raid comes from will be blatted with our superb tomahawk missles BANG
If you'd've ever had a girlfriend, she would have told you that it's not the size that counts but what you can do with it. ;o)
We've had this discussion before, haven't we Dany?
Argentina's military has been starved of funds by successive governments, so it is now one of the weakest (if not the weakest) military in the whole of South America.
Britain has never had a large standing army (only boosting numbers in times of war), yet we have been able to do impossible feats with that small number.
All Argentina's military could do was murder it's own people.
Never mind Dany, who knows, once CFK is booted out you may be another Military Dictatorship who will spend wads of taxpayers money on themselves.
I don't forsee this having a happy ending though.
“If you'd've ever had a girlfriend, she would have told you that it's not the size that counts but what you can do with it. ;o)”
If you ever had one and told you that, she was miserably lying to you to avoid to hurt your fillings.
Sure she didn’t want to make you feel more miserable than you already are.
And after living you for obvious lack of satisfaction, she was laughing with her new boyfriend talking about your size.
And that is not the end of the story she also told all her friends about your poor size.
What explain the reason why you are still alone.
Ask ElaineB about it if you don’t believe me, she seems to know very well about right sizes.
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