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Sea Harrier FRS.1
The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier Jump Jet family developed. It first entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980 as the Sea Harrier FRS1 and became informally known as the “Shar”. Unusual in an era in which most naval and land-based air superiority fighters were large and supersonic, the principal role of the subsonic Sea Harrier was to provide air defense for Royal Navy task groups centred around the aircraft carriers.
Blue Fox (ARI 5982) was largely an adaptation of the Seaspray radar to form an “off the shelf” fighter radar. Design was prematurely frozen in 1982 for the Falklands War. In 1984, upgrades (Blue Fox B?) were made to the processor, scanner and receiver which significantly improved it. The radar was extremely reliable; some Blue Foxes operated right through to the MLU in 1992 without repair. The next stage in development was Blue Fox Mk 2; essentially this was mostly pre-development work which fed into Blue Vixen and CAPTOR because Blue Fox was withdrawn soon after upgrading to Mk 2 was completed. Blue Fox Mk 2 incorporated two ECCM technologies, ILIC (In Loop Interpretative (or Integration) Control) and Anderwave (after the designers, Anderson & Waverley) which were subsequently used on Blue Vixen and ECR-90. This system was top secret; after Blue Fox Mk 2 was withdrawn from service, all systems had to be physically scrapped, despite intense overseas interest. All drawings were burnt.
Weapons
- 2 x 30mm ADEN (130 rounds per gun)
- 4 x AIM-9G/L
- 4 x RN 2" (144 rockets)
- 2 x Sea Eagle ASM
- 5 x 1000lb Bombs (RET/FF/MFBF)
- 5 x BL-755 Cluster bombs
Countermeasures
- 2 x AN/ALE-40 (60 flares/Chaff)
Sensors
- Ferranti Blue Fox radar (ARI 5982)
- RWR (ARI 18228)
Eye candy
Sea Harrier FA.2
Upgrade of FRS1 fleet in 1988, featuring the Blue Vixen Pulse-Doppler radar and the AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. A development of the FRS.1. But did include the more powerful engine upgrade that the Harrier II’s received (Pegasus Mk.104/106).
Blue Vixen (ARI 50019) was a superb radar design. It hadn’t been possible to make Blue Fox a lookdown/shootdown pulse doppler radar due to time constraints and a lack of suitable industrial and knowledge base. Armed with money and experience from Blue Fox, Ferranti started the Blue Falcon demonstrator program. This became the prototype for Blue Vixen.
For Blue Vixen, Ferranti eschewed the simpler high PRF route which Marconi were following with AI24 Foxhunter and went full speed into medium PRF pulse doppler radar. This gave excellent all-aspect lookdown performance. In terms of rival radar designs, it is ahead of APG-65, more comparable to the (heavier, larger) APG-73. While Blue Vixen was initially required to track 12 targets, Ferranti aimed (and achieved) for an internal target of 28.
Weapons
- 2 x 30mm ADEN (130 rounds per gun)
- 4 x AIM-9L/M
- 4x ASRAAM
- 4 x AMRAAM (AIM-120A / B / C5)
- 2 x ALARM ARM ( yet to be confirmed )
- 2 x Sea Eagle ASM
- 5 x 1000lb Bombs (RET/FF/MFBF)
- 5 x 540lb Bombs (RET/FF/MFBF)
- 5 x BL-755 Cluster bombs
Air to Air Loadouts
- 4 x Sidewinder + 2 x Gun Pod + 60 countermeasures (provided by 2 x AN/ALE-40)
- 2 x AMRAAM + 2 x Gun Pod + 60 countermeasures (provided by 2 x AN/ALE-40)
- 4 x Sidewinder + 2 x AMRAAM + 60 countermeasures (provided by 2 x AN/ALE-40)
- 4 x AMRAAM + 60 countermeasures (provided by 2 x AN/ALE-40)
- 2 x Sidewinder + 2 x Gun Pod + 380 countermeasures ( 2 x BOL 304 & 2 x AN/ALE-40)
- 2 x Sidewinder + 2 x AMRAAM + 380 countermeasures ( 2 x BOL 304 & 2 x AN/ALE-40)
Countermeasures
- 2 x AN/ALE-40(V) (60 flares/chaff)
- 2 x BOL 304 dispensers (320 chaff/IRCM’s)
Sensors
- Ferranti Blue Vixen Multi-Mode radar (ARI 50019/1)
- RWR (ARI 18228/19)
Loadouts affect CM availability
- 4 x Sidewinder + 60 countermeasures (provided by 2 x AN/ALE-40)
- 2 x Sidewinder + 380 countermeasures ( 2 x BOL 304 & 2 x AN/ALE-40)
Eye Candy
