MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' veteran Sea Harriers decommissioned

Twenty-four years after gaining legendary status during the Falklands War, the UK Royal Navy's last British Aerospace Sea Harrier fighters were retired Tuesday March 28, completing the service's transition to conducting joint fast jet operations with the Royal Air Force.

The Fleet Air Arm observed the end of an era at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset when its last six Sea Harrier FA2s were decommissioned, along with its last operational fast-jet squadron to fly the type: 801 NAS.

The aircraft will now be flown to RAF Shawbury in Shropshire to be placed in storage while discussions over their possible transfer to India can be concluded over the coming months.

The standing down of 801 NAS draws a line under 25 years of Sea Harrier operations by the unit, which logged its most notable missions with the FRS1 variant during 1982's Falklands/Malvinas conflict, when its aircraft recorded eight air-to-air kills.

The squadron ?which later also flew combat sorties over Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sierra Leone? bowed out on an operational high on 9 March, when five of its fighters participated in a farewell sortie flown against a "hostile" formation of four RAF Panavia Tornado GR4s, two Sepecat Jaguar GR3s and five US Air Force Boeing F-15Cs.

The Sea Harrier formation recorded "kills" against all the rival force for the "loss" of just one aircraft, the squadron says.

Equipped with Blue Vixen multi-mode radar and armed with Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles, the FA2 has for more than a decade provided the UK with an aircraft carrier-capable air defence service.

The type was embarked aboard an RN vessel for the last time on 28 February, following a 2002 Ministry of Defence decision to retire the fleet early rather than find an expensive and technically risky further upgrade to the Sea Harrier design.

"Although the FA2 has a capable air-defence weapons system, post-2006 it would require significant investment to remain credible until the Joint Combat Aircraft [Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter] enters service towards the middle of the next decade," the navy says.

A possible upgrade to the FA2 would have included replacement of its Rolls-Royce Pegasus 106 engine, which provides limited operating margin and weapons bring-back capability in hot conditions.

These factors led to the conclusion that the FA2 was "less viable as a platform" than the BAE Systems Harrier GR7A and upgraded GR9 platforms, says Cdr Henry Mitchell, the RN's Commander Sea Harrier Force.

The GR7/9 "is a much more relevant platform for power projection" and offers greater flexibility to support allied troops on the ground, he says. "In the Cold War bring-back was a paper exercise. Recently it has been a big issue."

But the removal from service of its last six FA2s and two Sea Harrier T8 trainers is not the end for the RN's fighter force.

Joint Force Harrier's squadron structure is to be transformed from 31 March, on the way to its eventual complement of four squadrons of BAE-modified Harrier GR9/9As. The Harrier GR7/7As of the RAF's 3 Sqn will be transferred late this week to revive 800 NAS, which previously operated the Sea Harrier.

The Sea Harrier has a 26-year long association with RNAS Yeovilton.

Yesterday more than 1,000 Royal Navy staff from the base and 50 local school children spelt out a farewell message to the Sea Harrier FA2 Jump-Jets.

Normally crews of naval aircraft carriers mark special events by spelling them out on the flight deck, but this was a first for a base.