{"id":475,"date":"2014-10-22T03:07:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-22T00:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=475"},"modified":"2014-12-08T22:46:49","modified_gmt":"2014-12-08T20:46:49","slug":"bring-back-the-harrier-fighter-jet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=475","title":{"rendered":"Bring back the Harrier Fighter Jet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_477\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/RAF-Hawker-Siddeley-Harrier-GR3-1976.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-477\" class=\"size-full wp-image-477\" src=\"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/RAF-Hawker-Siddeley-Harrier-GR3-1976.jpg\" alt=\"A RAF Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3 Jump Jet  1976 (Photo by Silverstone Auctions)\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/RAF-Hawker-Siddeley-Harrier-GR3-1976.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/RAF-Hawker-Siddeley-Harrier-GR3-1976-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-477\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A RAF Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3 Jump Jet 1976 (Photo by Silverstone Auctions)<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Britain must be equipped to confront the situation in the Middle East.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The British-designed P1127 \u2013 the prototype Harrier fighter \u2013 first flew on October 21 1960, a date shared with Lord Nelson\u2019s success at Trafalgar in 1805.<\/p>\n<p>The situation developing in Ukraine and the Middle East may require, once again, everything this country can provide, including both new aircraft carriers. Britain\u2019s \u201cnext generation\u201d fighter, the<\/p>\n<p>F-35, is not ready, not serviceable, not battle-proven and is so expensive that only small numbers are ordered.<\/p>\n<p>Financial prudence was argued in the decision to withdraw the Harrier. However, it is still held in such high regard by other operators \u2013 including the USA, who purchased all our Harriers when they were decommissioned \u2013 that they will remain in service for many years yet. Britain\u2019s financial circumstances and the world\u2019s security situation have both changed since this decision was made.<\/p>\n<p>We need our carriers soon and fully equipped with battle-proven aircraft to give them fighting capability. Harriers of existing specification should be manufactured urgently and in significant numbers. The unit cost would be a fraction of that of the F-35 and they would be in service much earlier. When the F-35 proves itself, it could then be introduced, but aircraft carriers without aircraft are a liability, not an asset.<\/p>\n<p>In the hours before battle, Lord Nelson signalled his fleet: \u201cEngland expects that every man will do his duty.\u201d Part of that duty, surely, is to be ready. We are not.<br \/>\n<strong>Source:<\/strong> SIR \u2013 By\u00a0Mark Harrison \/ Guernsey, Channel Islands &#8211; October 21, 2014 (<a title=\"Bring back the Harrier fighter\" href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/active\/11174522\/Bring-back-the-Harrier-fighter.html\" target=\"_blank\">telegraph.co.uk<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain must be equipped to confront the situation in the Middle East. The British-designed P1127 \u2013 the prototype Harrier fighter \u2013 first flew on October 21 1960, a date shared with Lord Nelson\u2019s success&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[318,319,317,316,63,315],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}