Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.3

The GR.3 was the last and most complete single-seat version of the first-generation Harrier for the Royal Air Force. It was not a clean-sheet aircraft: the RAF brought its GR.1s and GR.1As up to the new standard and also ordered new-build airframes. According to the variant listing consulted, 40 GR.3s were built new — the last delivered in December 1986 — and about 62 more came from converted GR.1s and GR.1As; in time, every remaining GR.1 and GR.1A was brought up to GR.3 standard. The transition was already under way in the mid-1970s: in January 1975 No. 3 Squadron, based in Germany for battlefield interdiction and tactical reconnaissance, was replacing its GR.1As with the new GR.3.

Three changes defined the standard. The first was the engine: the Rolls-Royce Pegasus 11, designated Pegasus Mk 103 in British service, rated at about 95.9 kN against the 91.4 kN of the GR.1A's Pegasus Mk 102; it replaced the original Pegasus 6 during the conversion process. The second was the attack sensors: the tip of a lengthened nose housed the LRMTS (Laser Ranger and Marked Target Seeker), which measured range to the target and let the pilot attack targets marked by laser from ground troops or other aircraft. That appendage earned it the RAF nickname «Snoopy nose», and elsewhere «Pinocchio nose». The third was self-protection: a Marconi ARI 18223 radar warning receiver, with antennas on the fin leading edge and at the end of the tail boom, warned of threats from ahead and behind, and electronic countermeasures were integrated.

The specification sheet based on Jane's 1988–89 completes the avionics: the Ferranti LRMTS itself, Ferranti FE541 inertial navigation and attack system, Smiths head-up display, GEC Avionics AD2770 TACAN, Plessey U/VHF communications, Ultra Electronics standby UHF, Cossor IFF and a Sperry C2G compass. The same source gives a length of 14.27 m, a span of 7.75 m (more with ferry tips fitted), a height of 3.63 m and a wing area of 18.68 m². Armament followed the GR.1 pattern: two 30 mm ADEN cannon in under-fuselage pods and five hardpoints for SNEB rockets, iron bombs, BL755 cluster bombs, a reconnaissance pod and, later, laser-guided bombs. The GR.3 also served as the starting point for the Royal Navy's Sea Harrier.

The GR.3 was the RAF's attack aircraft in West Germany. The Harrier squadrons formed at Wildenrath in 1970 and two years later moved forward to Gütersloh in 1977, closer to the likely front line; one was disbanded and its aircraft shared between the other two. The doctrine was to operate from short, rough strips and camouflaged hides to strike armoured formations advancing from the east. No. 1 Squadron was earmarked for Norway within Allied Forces Northern Europe, and in Belize the Harrier was the only RAF combat aircraft able to operate safely from the airport's short runway; British forces withdrew in 1993.

In 1982 the task force had only 28 Sea Harriers, so RAF Harriers were added. No. 1 Squadron was chosen because it was the only Harrier squadron qualified in air-to-air refuelling, initially as attrition replacements for Sea Harrier losses. Its GR.3s were not suited to carrier operations: the initial plan to modify twelve aircraft grew to more than twenty, with nosewheel steering, changes to the fuel control units, Sidewinder capability on the outer pylons, a radio transponder, tie-down shackles, drain holes and anti-corrosion weatherproofing. Pilots practised deck landings and ski-jump take-offs at Yeovilton, flew air combat training against French Mirages and Étendards, and ran trials with Sidewinders and laser-guided bombs. The aircraft flew with air refuelling to Ascension Island — nine hours for a single-engined jet, a new milestone for the RAF — and there were loaded aboard the container ship Atlantic Conveyor, bagged against salt water. Between 10 and 24 May 1982 a detachment of three GR.3s provided air defence for Ascension until three F-4 Phantom IIs arrived.

On 18 May the fourteen Harriers aboard Atlantic Conveyor were transferred to the carriers, ten to HMS Hermes and four to HMS Invincible; all the GR.3s went to Hermes. After one day of work-up, the squadron flew its first operational sortie on 20 May. As the Sea Harriers had lost no aircraft in air combat, the GR.3s were used not as replacements but as reinforcements dedicated to attack: close air support, armed reconnaissance and strikes on Stanley airfield and the outlying strips. On 23 May the commanding officer, Wing Commander Peter Squire, flying XZ997, led four aircraft that bombed the Dunnose Head airstrip with 454 kg bombs. The five-camera reconnaissance pod, together with the photo-processing facilities aboard Hermes, located enemy positions despite Argentine decoys. Cluster bombs weighed heavily at Goose Green in support of 2 PARA, pinned on a forward slope by 35 mm guns firing at 2000 metres until the Harriers took out those guns. After the landings, a forward operating strip with refuelling for up to four aircraft was built near Port San Carlos, where two GR.3s were detached each day on quick-reaction support. Laser-guided bombs could only be exploited one day before the ceasefire, once laser target markers were in the right place at the right time: four bombs delivered from loft profiles scored two direct hits, the RAF's first combat use of smart weapons.

The RAF Museum counts fourteen GR.3s used in the campaign and four lost. On 21 May Jeff Glover's XZ972 was shot down by a Blowpipe missile at Port Howard; on 27 May Bob Iveson's XZ988 was hit by 20 mm cannon fire near Goose Green, and the pilot evaded capture for three days; on 30 May Jerry Pook's XZ963, hit by small-arms fire near Port Stanley, ran out of fuel and its pilot ejected 56 km from the ship; and on 8 June Squire's XZ989 was lost to a mechanical failure on landing in the Port San Carlos area. In the later stages, one aircraft in every four launched came back with holes in it, mostly from small arms and easily repaired.

After the 14 June ceasefire a full site was built ashore at Port Stanley, and on 4 July the GR.3 detachment moved ashore, armed with Sidewinders for air defence. As a deterrent, No. 1453 Flight kept Harriers on the islands from August 1983 to June 1985. The first generation saw no further RAF combat and was replaced by the Harrier II. GR.3 XZ997, a Falklands veteran, is displayed at the RAF Museum Midlands, and other examples are preserved in museums in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Estonia, China, New Zealand and Belize.