Anybody know how well those Harriers perform at those high-altitude Afghan airbases in summer heat? I bet the payload is somewhat restricted and the vertical landings a bit hairier than usual.
From the pics it appears that they are at a base with a paved runway. They could operate in STOL but wouldn't have to perform a vertical landing as they would from their normal shipborn operations.
VTO results in almost no payload even at sea level, so even aboard the ships they do a short take off. The Brits have a ski jump at the end of the deck that improves takeoff performance, but for some reason we don't have the ski jump on our ships.