Hawker Siddeley Harrier variant
Hawker Siddeley Harrier AV-8A Harrier
The single-seat Harrier for the United States Marine Corps, known to the manufacturer as the Harrier Mk 50. It was broadly similar to the British GR.1, but magnesium components — which corroded quickly at sea — were removed, American radios and IFF were fitted, and the outer pylons were designed from delivery to carry Sidewinder missiles. The Marine Corps ordered 102 single-seaters within a total order of 110 aircraft and accepted the first on 6 January 1971 at Dunsfold.
- 102
- Units built
- 1,900 km
- Range
History
A British aircraft for the Marines
The Marine Corps began showing serious interest in the Harrier around the time the first RAF squadron formed in 1969, and that interest encouraged Hawker Siddeley to develop the aircraft further. Despite concerns in Congress about overlapping close air support programmes, the Marines pushed the purchase through.
Delivery and adaptation
The first AV-8A was accepted on 6 January 1971 at Dunsfold Aerodrome in England, with testing beginning at Naval Air Station Patuxent River on 26 January. The variant entered service with Marine attack squadrons that year. Besides deleting magnesium and fitting American avionics, the Ferranti FE541 inertial suite was replaced by a simpler interface and weapon-aiming computer to speed turnaround between missions, and Martin-Baker ejection seats gave way to the Stencel SEU-3A. Most aircraft were delivered with the more powerful Pegasus of the GR.3 rather than the GR.1 engine.
Shipboard operations
The Marines were quick to explore naval employment. Admiral Elmo Zumwalt promoted the Sea Control Ship concept, a light carrier with Harriers and helicopters to supplement the large carriers; the amphibious assault ship USS Guam was converted into the Interim Sea Control Ship and operated as such between 1971 and 1973 to study the limits of the idea. In 1976 fourteen Harriers deployed aboard USS Franklin D. Roosevelt for six months, and trials showed the aircraft could operate in weather that grounded conventional carrier types.
Forward basing and air combat
Ashore, the Marine concept rested on speed: forward sites holding one to four aircraft, set up in under 24 hours some 20 miles (32 km) from the forward edge of battle, with a more permanent base around 50 miles (80 km) back. Proximity raised sortie rates sharply and cut fuel consumption. Mock dogfights against F-4 Phantom IIs taught pilots to use vectoring in forward flight (VIFF) to outmanoeuvre opponents and showed the Harrier could fight effectively at close range.
Record
The AV-8A's operational success helped overcome scepticism towards V/STOL aircraft. It also came at a price: around 40 AV-8A/C airframes were lost and some 30 pilots killed during the 1970s and 1980s. From 1979 the survivors began upgrading to AV-8C standard, and all were retired by 1987 as the AV-8B Harrier II arrived.