Needs a little work but is real low time!
With the Indian Navy being one of the few going after Somali pirates, I say give them all the parts planes they want.
Needs a little work but is real low time!
/johnny
Somebody should make good use of those retired Harriers.
Somebody needs to tell the wise men at Strategypage that only US-built Harriers are designated AV-8. The Indian Navy operates the Sea Harrier.
And it has tested it’s Israeli built BVR missiles as recently as 2009.
http://www.defence.pk/forums/india-defence/10979-indian-sea-harrier-tests-bvr-missile.html
And if they were talking about India buying 8 retired Sea Harriers from the Brits, that purchase didn’t happen.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=400895
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Maybe Britan should sell the rest of its navy to the Indians ... oh the irony!
The Harriers the UK just retired are GR.9s. No radar, no ability to carry any A2A missiles other than Sidewinders.
The Sea Harrier FA.2s were retired in 2006. Even if India could buy those remaining, they haven’t been mothballed and would take an enormous amount of rework to make operational.
Theoretically, the Indians could buy the GR.9s and have the US upgrade them with APG-65s into a configuration similar to the AV-8B+ (since the GR.9 is structurally the same as the AV-8B). The GR.9 would actually provide a better basis than the AV-8B, because the RAF had an extra set of pylons under the wings for Sidewinder carriage, and could carry four BVR missiles, two Sidewinders and two drop tanks. I don’t know whether the GR.9 could be updgraded to carry the GAU-12 25mm pod (since the Aden cannon was never bought and the GR.5/7/9 series lacked a gun) ...
I’ve heard some of the Drivers call the Harrier a Widow Maker.