That’s a British-designed Harrier, AKA “jump jet”. The USMC has operated quite a few of them, including service in Afghanistan.
There were some Harriers at Kandahar Airfield when I was there. Sounded like a damn Space Shuttle launching when they took off.
Just wondering if it was one of ours or not. I think it is since it’s been photo’d by an American C-130 flying above it.
RAF Harrier GR.3. The USMC operated variations of the GR.1 (short pointy nose as opposed to the longer one with the bombing aid) as the AV-8A and C.
The Marines currently operate two variants of the AV-8B, which the Brits operated variants of as the Harrier GR.5, 7 and 9. Basically McDonnell Douglas took the Harrier concept and replaced the typical Brit engineering with good ‘murican engineering and produced a much superior aircraft. ;-)