The Harrier III was a proposed Harrier II upgrade from BAe to upgrade the existing Harrier GR.7/9 with the Blue Vixen radar system from the newly retired Sea Harrier FA.2.
This upgrade would have improved fighter capabilities of the Ground Attack Harriers and would have had greater payload and range over the original 1st Gen Sea Harrier, not to mention more pylons for missiles, but this was rejected with the MoD saying that it would cost more than just upgrading the Sea Harrier FA.2 and that the F35 was close to being finished so it was viewed as a wasted of money, so the Harrier GR.7 would have to function as a fighter for 2 years until the Lightning came (weeks later the F35 got delayed). After the Harrier GR.7 was retired Britain was left without a Fleet Defense Fighter/Interceptor.
and more infos about that?
Was it a real thing that was built, or was it only a proposal?
Yeah i know it the Harrier that use nuclear missile as weapons and it pilot also have laser eyes
For what i heard it was only a proposal to upgrade Gr9s with blue vixen
It was deemed too expensive
Not just that
Quite an interesting debate really
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmdfence/779/77908.htm
So what they were looking to do is produce an AV-8B+ counterpart, just not using old Hornet radars.
Sort of it was to replace the FA2
It would be very similar to the AV8B+ but with better engines and radar and counter measures
Yeah, the Harrier III would have been the British counter-part to AV-8B+ but with a stronger Radar, stronger engine, more hardpoints for AMRAAMs and Sidewinders or ASRAAMs and many more countermeasures.
What they also could have is upgraded the Sea Harrier FA.2 with the GR.7 wing,
cause there would be no tech change or move or huge and long upgrade
nope, read the paragraph above it:
fitting a GR 7 wing would have in fact changed nothing
I didn’t actually think about the engine. thanks
How many operational Harriers were there during GR.9 upgrade
I don’t know, the Parliament hearing speaks of 51 GR.9/9A vs 83 before that
But it could have been even less with budget cuts later down the line
Would it also have been more economic to simply have bought new Harriers that were built with the radar built in instead of upgrading
I also hate the British Parliament and THE FUCKING Labor Government (I also spelled labour wrong 'cause I hate them so much)
Litteraly every other decision than retiring Shar would have been more logical and economical
Imagen if the British had gone into a war before the F35 came in and after the Harriers were retired.
They would have been screwed
Well I mean at least the Type 45s would be there
But there would still be enemy long ranged bombers