Model Forum / General / Models / November 2007

That still don't make it a "fighter"...even if I am an "ace" in the sim...

Sea Harriers were used for fleet defence and as such were interceptors.  The
Harrier airframe was not a good fighter. It would bleed off energy far too
quickly.

During the 1980s, RAF tactics in Germany were to put up a four-ship package
of Harrier GR3s.  Three of the aircraft would carry a warload suitable for
the mission. The fourth was known as the "Stinger". This jet would carry a
single Winder on one outboard pylon with a Phimat chaff pod on the other.
The Stinger would be placed in a random position in the formation. His job
was to "protect" the others, but he was really only there as deterrence -
any attacking aircraft could never be sure which jet had the Winder.

The Stinger was always flown by an experienced pilot and the intention was
not for him to actually engage any threatening aircraft, but for him to put
himself into a threatening posture whenever an enemy fighter approached one
of his formation. This required a lot of discipline and so the job was given
to the more older. more experinced jockeys. This was explained to me once by
a very experienced Squadron Leader.  "The Jet [1] isn't a fighter," he said.
"But you can't tell these kids that. Give 'em a Winder and strap a bang seat
to their arse and they all think they're bloody Maverick. God forbid it
should ever come to the real thing, 'cos they'll try mixing it with a Mig
and they'll die. I wouldn't even mix it with a bloody Alpha Jet."

I asked him about VIFFing - Vectoring In Forward Flight, where the pilot
vectors the nozzles to allow the jet to stand still in the skies. He said
"Viffing is only good for airshows."  His argument was that in air combat
the way to survive is to keep your energy high. If you have low energy you
should always unload the aircraft (dive at a shallow angle which reduces the
load on the wings and allows speed to be regained) and disengage. He said
that viffing instantly gave the aircraft *zero* energy. It may get you out
of a tight spot with a single attacking fighter, but they always hunt in
pairs.  After the viff, you would be stationary and his wingman would waltz
right in and kill you. He was of the opinion that the wingman wouldn't even
need to use any weapons for the kill - a fast pass in afterburner would
produce enough turbulence to knock the Harrier off its exhaust column. There
was also a concern that viffing at high speed might actually tear some of
the older jets apart.

The Harrier's best survival methods were low-level concealment and
avoidance. This was practiced all the time. Three times a year we used to go
to "Deci" in Sardinia. Once was for Armament Practice Camp (APC) which
allowed extensive bombing and gunnery practice on the Capo Frasca range. The
other two times were for ACMI - air combat training on the Air Combat
Maneuvering Instrumentation range. The intention here was to let the kids
loose with a Harrier that had been stripped down to its lightest
configuration (no guns), fitted with a acquisition Winder and ACMI pod and
put them up against F-15s.  After four days of continually getting creamed
by real fighters, they learned that there was no way they would ever survive
such an encounter. They could then learn the real tactics of fighter
avoidance. At the start of the ACMI they considered a "kill" by one of their
side as a successful sortie. At the end of the detachment they considered a
sortie where none of their own was killed to be successful.

[1]  RAF Harrier pilots never referred to their mount by name. It was always
"The Jet".  The groundcrew nickname for a missile-armed jet was "Uhrwerk
Springen Haufen", which was German for "Clockwork Leaping Heap" - the
"clockwork" bit referring to the fact that it had a "side winder".  ;-)

Yup...different from a USMC AV8B in that they had a radar and trained to
employing it much earlier than the US Marines did.

Heh...but it was still one of the best close air support aircraft ever
produced...until they stuck a radar on it.  A-10 being the best, IMO.

...it's an "A"V8B..."A" stands for "Attack".