R.I.P to the Harrier Jump Jet in the UK!

[blind_dead_mcjones]

Well...hey...seeing as you chaps don't want them and all, why not donate your Harriers to Australia =D.

We sure could use them, we just spent a bundle on buying Super-Hornets from the U.S, something I don't entirely agree with. I think we bought 9. In total. Wow huh?

So yeah, any spare jet aircraft, missiles...even bullets? Much appreciated =P

quoted for truth, especially the bit about the super hornets, what were they thinking?

RAAF will say what they've said every time someone's tried to shop them harriers - too bloody short in the leg to be any use here.

however there more than a few historical military aircraft museums around here in oz that would gladly welcome a harrier or two with open arms

 

[Wadders]

I hope they're giving the S.A.S jetpacks. Flying Techno Ninja Squad would kick arse.

That would be the solution to all of our problems.

Also. Royal Family. Necessary? No.
The one thing that only the Queen could actually do (declare war) went out the window with Blair and Iraq.
So now they are essentially useless.

I dont see where the Royal Family come into all of this?

Cost-cutting.

Hmm, now knowing you Rob, you're going to be dissapointed with me here, but I confess to being a bit of a Royalist.

Last year the royal family cost every person who pays tax in Britain 62p. Not exactly a massive dent out of people's income. If that's the price we have to pay to preserve a bit of tradition and history, then fair enough. Plus they probably help boost what little tourism industry we have.

Also, I like it when Prince Charles blocks horrible building projects that looks like prisons in historical areas or as replacements for historical buildings. That guy is a legend. And if we didnt have Prince Phillip, who would Mock the Week have to take the piss out of?

69p sounds fuck all, put per person brings that to £42,668,326.26
Which is a hefty sum. And I don't think they rake in that much from tourism.... that's also just the base cost, not security, or extravagant royal weddings (I'm looking at you, Harry) so, if we really wanted to cut the debt, it's genuinely worth thinking about saying bye-bye to the most comfortably-off-for-such-little-work people in the world. They're essentailly on the dole. A very sizeable dole.

Well last year it was actually 62p, I was looking at the wrong source whan I wrote that, which brings the total to just over £38 million. I agree that that is still a hell of a lot of money to be spent on such a small group of people, and could have a lot shaved off it, but I just disagree with the principle of getting rid of them altogether.

However, even if you did cut their money altogether, you'd still only be saving fuck all in the grand scheme of things. Overall the cuts in government are supposed to save about £6bn, with cuts of over £600m in some individual departments. £38m is a drop in the ocean really.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8700342.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/7872052/Cost-of-Royal-Family-drops-7p-per-person.html

 

[Branches]

It's kinda sad. The JSF is so behind and their considering not continuing the VTOL variant, which surprisingly is the only one worth a damn and the only one with real world potential A la the USMC needs a replacement for the Harrier, Britain needs a replacement for the Harrier. But noooo, Let's replace our lighter, faster F-16s with super stealthy planes that are heavier, slower, an easily be picked up by an astute radarman.

I mean, if you consider the fact that the F-35's program has taken longer than the F-22's development cycle, one that was specifically made for "Well, we don't have the technology now, but when we do we'll add it to the F-22" rather than the "well, we have all this fancy technology and we'll...OMG LOOK A NEW SHINY HUD! LETS INSTALL THAT TOO! No room? LET'S GO BACK AND REDESIGN THE AIRFRAME TO ACCOMMODATE IT!"

 

[omega 616]

10 years is a long time to have that kind of vulnerability as fas as I'm concerned.

Yeah, those nukes onboard subs ain't going to do much protecting. Nobody would be stupid enough to attack us anyway, were so far up America's ass Cornwall looks like America's tail.

We could pretty much decommision half of our army, navy and air force and still nobody would fuck with us. They might planting car bamobs and blowing themselvs up in our citys but the army,navy or airforce wouldn't stop that anyway.

If there is another war, army's won't matter just launch missiles at each other till one side gives up or were all fucked.

This is just my take on things anyway, although somebody is bound to quote me who knows every detail about war and tell me just how important every war machine we have is important to our survival.

 

[Wadders]

10 years is a long time to have that kind of vulnerability as fas as I'm concerned.

Yeah, those nukes onboard subs ain't going to do much protecting. Nobody would be stupid enough to attack us anyway, were so far up America's ass Cornwall looks like America's tail.

We could pretty much decommision half of our army, navy and air force and still nobody would fuck with us. They might planting car bamobs and blowing themselvs up in our citys but the army,navy or airforce wouldn't stop that anyway.

If there is another war, army's won't matter just launch missiles at each other till one side gives up or were all fucked.

This is just my take on things anyway, although somebody is bound to quote me who knows every detail about war and tell me just how important every war machine we have is important to our survival.

I'm pretty sure that Nukes are used as an absolute last resort, you still need planes.

And armies will jsut launch missiles at eachother? Yeah like the last 2 major wars we've been involved in where we ddint send in any aircraft, tanks or troops, jsut missiles. Oh wait...

 

[Tipsy Giant]

We should have kept the Harrier and ditched Trident, if we could have span it as us disarming our nuclear power we could have used it to try to convince others to do so too while saving cash WIN/WIN

 

[Valkyrie101]

I hope they're giving the S.A.S jetpacks. Flying Techno Ninja Squad would kick arse.

That's the second time today I've seen the SAS referred to as Flying Techno Ninja Squad.

 

[omega 616]

10 years is a long time to have that kind of vulnerability as fas as I'm concerned.

Yeah, those nukes onboard subs ain't going to do much protecting. Nobody would be stupid enough to attack us anyway, were so far up America's ass Cornwall looks like America's tail.

We could pretty much decommision half of our army, navy and air force and still nobody would fuck with us. They might planting car bamobs and blowing themselvs up in our citys but the army,navy or airforce wouldn't stop that anyway.

If there is another war, army's won't matter just launch missiles at each other till one side gives up or were all fucked.

This is just my take on things anyway, although somebody is bound to quote me who knows every detail about war and tell me just how important every war machine we have is important to our survival.

I'm pretty sure that Nukes are used as an absolute last resort, you still need planes.

And armies will jsut launch missiles at eachother? Yeah like the last 2 major wars we've been involved in where we ddint send in any aircraft, tanks or troops, jsut missiles. Oh wait...

Nukes can be launched from ships, silo's and boats (in navy terms a ship is above the water and a boat is below).

At the end of the last world war germany were close to perfecting a rocket that could fly serious miles, that was how many years ago? These days I wouldn't be surprised if we could circumnavigate the earth with a missile using GPS.

I know a boat can lauch a warhead in the general direction of a target, then a sub closer to the target will "pick up" the warhead and direct it to it's exact target.

In an age were one guy can sit at a computer and control a spy plane, it is only a matter of time till one guy is sitting a few miles away, controlling appache.

In the great wars, there were arms races who could invent the next big thing, to swing the balance in there favour. First there was the sling, then a bow, then a flint lock rifle etc etc etc till we get to a minigun, firing how many rounds a second?

Small amounts of army/navy/air force are still needed but I think it's more show of force, rather than them actually being needed.

 

[Wadders]

10 years is a long time to have that kind of vulnerability as fas as I'm concerned.

Yeah, those nukes onboard subs ain't going to do much protecting. Nobody would be stupid enough to attack us anyway, were so far up America's ass Cornwall looks like America's tail.

We could pretty much decommision half of our army, navy and air force and still nobody would fuck with us. They might planting car bamobs and blowing themselvs up in our citys but the army,navy or airforce wouldn't stop that anyway.

If there is another war, army's won't matter just launch missiles at each other till one side gives up or were all fucked.

This is just my take on things anyway, although somebody is bound to quote me who knows every detail about war and tell me just how important every war machine we have is important to our survival.

I'm pretty sure that Nukes are used as an absolute last resort, you still need planes.

And armies will jsut launch missiles at eachother? Yeah like the last 2 major wars we've been involved in where we ddint send in any aircraft, tanks or troops, jsut missiles. Oh wait...

Nukes can be launched from ships, silo's and boats (in navy terms a ship is above the water and a boat is below).

At the end of the last world war germany were close to perfecting a rocket that could fly serious miles, that was how many years ago? These days I wouldn't be surprised if we could circumnavigate the earth with a missile using GPS.

I know a boat can lauch a warhead in the general direction of a target, then a sub closer to the target will "pick up" the warhead and direct it to it's exact target.

In an age were one guy can sit at a computer and control a spy plane, it is only a matter of time till one guy is sitting a few miles away, controlling appache.

In the great wars, there were arms races who could invent the next big thing, to swing the balance in there favour. First there was the sling, then a bow, then a flint lock rifle etc etc etc till we get to a minigun, firing how many rounds a second?

Small amounts of army/navy/air force are still needed but I think it's more show of force, rather than them actually being needed.

I didnt mean you still need planes to launch nukes, i meant that you still need planes because nukes are a last resort, for when all else, planes included, has failed. Therefore you need a conventional military that can have a go at the fight before you start wheeling out the nukes.

And in any war, you need troops to hold ground, to get any where. Sure you might be able to defeat an army with long range rockets, drones etc sometime in the not too distant future, but you'll still need soldiers to hold the ground you win, and aircraft to support them.

 

[Grubnar]

4m30s onwards is seriously amazing footage of what the Americans had described as 'suicide'. RAF all the way.

EDIT: Watch the shadows!!

Wow. Watch the shadows indeed. That is really low, really fast.

In my mind the Harrier is not only a marvel of modern engineering but an Icon.

I will miss it as I miss the SR-71 Blackbird. It really feels like we are taking a step backwards.

 

[SnipErlite]

>.< Bah. That's all I have to say.

Harriers are awesome. Stupid, stupid government....

 

[Scarim Coral]

If we get under attack from the sky then I will blame the goverment for cutting them off, the Harriers could of save us!
Seriously thought I am sad by this news (it one of my favourite airplane) although they don't be forgotten.

 

[ChicagoTed]

The thing that can fly like a chopper from San Andreas? Much love ^^

Seriously though, it's a great plane and yeah I gotta agree, 10 years with a diminished air force capacity is a long time, but I really doubt Brits are heading for anything remotely resembling a major conflict. At most you'll be doing crap like Iraq where you just ship off a number of soldiers to support another force.

10 years! What the hell happend to the euro fighter, have they been scraped on top of the harrier?

 

[Whispering Death]

It's kinda sad. The JSF is so behind and their considering not continuing the VTOL variant, which surprisingly is the only one worth a damn and the only one with real world potential A la the USMC needs a replacement for the Harrier, Britain needs a replacement for the Harrier. But noooo, Let's replace our lighter, faster F-16s with super stealthy planes that are heavier, slower, an easily be picked up by an astute radarman.

I mean, if you consider the fact that the F-35's program has taken longer than the F-22's development cycle, one that was specifically made for "Well, we don't have the technology now, but when we do we'll add it to the F-22" rather than the "well, we have all this fancy technology and we'll...OMG LOOK A NEW SHINY HUD! LETS INSTALL THAT TOO! No room? LET'S GO BACK AND REDESIGN THE AIRFRAME TO ACCOMMODATE IT!"

The F-35 has been an absolute boondoggle.

It's really been more like this:
Lockheed Martin: "Well, we have this great new HUD that might save someone's life at some point and it will only cost us $20 billion to add it in the pipeline!"
Government: "Hrm, well that sounds like a lot of money... oh, wait, it's not ours! Sure, knock yourselves out!"
Lockheed Martin: "Oh, cool. Hey, we'll be back tomorrow with more terribly expensive things we can add to it!"
Government: "Weren't you actually going to build some F-35s at some point..."
Lockheed Martin: "Yeah... we're getting around to that once we're done dreaming up incredibly expensive stuff we can convince you to buy with other people's money!"

 

[TerribleAssassin]

I hope they're giving the S.A.S jetpacks. Flying Techno Ninja Squad would kick arse.

Nevermind Nuclear Weapons! Shit's getting real when they re-do the Iranian Embassy Seige 400 miles above!

Oh yeah, thay were good jets, it's a shame they're getting rid of it, because 10 years is a long time to wait for a new jet.

 

[Souplex]

That's right UK; lower your defenses to save your budget. Little do you realize you've provided the solution to America's budget problem! Soon we shall go pillaging like a giant Mongol horde!

 

[Distorted Stu]

The iconic British jet <3

Dammit one of these better hover into the stadium during the 2012 games opening.

.. then the stig jumping out..

TAKE THAT CHINA!

 

[Squarez]

I can see why the Country would do it. Jets (well, military in general, but especially jets) are incredibly expensive to maintain for any country and from what i understand, Britain is going bankrupt at an alarming rate and is either considering or already has joined militaries with France (cookie for the person that spots the irony there).

However ten (gonna be nine soon, but still) years is a long time to leave a gap for new development. You should have something a bit more modern ready to take its place before you say that your next big hting is going to be in 2020.

Err...

We were in a war with them 200 years ago?

And no, we haven't joined forces, nor were we ever planning to.

 

[Laughing Man]

They do know they just made the Royal Navy defunct right? The Carrier IS the modern Navy. Parliament really screwed the pooch here, The Royal Navy used to be a name feared by all of Britain's enemies, now they don't even have capitol ships. Sad day for the British Military.

Not really carriers by themselves are nothing but Exocet magnets and are totally ineffective. Carriers require a huge number of support vessels to protect and assist them, besides the Royal Navy has something else lurking in the waters.

Whilst the first ship off the rack is showing a few teething issues the next one hitting the waters this month 'Ambush' should have all those niggles sorted.

As for the Harrier, great for the time but she is old and just about outclassed in every single way by her modern rivals. I've seen one our Navy ones do a close hover and seeing it in person is truly an awesome feat and the noise, my god are they loud, but she's old and she ain't the right tool for modern warfare so...