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Aviation History
1972
1972 - 0410.PDF
FLIGHT International, J7 February 1972 •mill DEFENCE As delivery date of the first French Air Force Jaguars approaches, high intensity flight testing of the RAF single- and two-seat variants continues. Seen here is S.07 carrying twin Matra rocket launchers on the outboard pylons and l,200lit, 265gal fuel tanks inboard Swiss Harrier study continues THE PETITION submitted last December to the Swiss Federal Council request ing that the HS Harrier be included in the Swiss strike-aircraft competi tion (Flight, December 16, page 986) has apparently borne fruit. The aircraft has been well received by the Swiss Press and this is seen in some quarters as a reflection of the official view. The fact that the Harrier has joined the competition compara tively late, however, has presented Hawker Siddeley with a more difficult marketing task. Sales resistance to the aircraft by the Swiss Government was initially substantial, but the re moval of some misconceptions con cerning performance has contributed largely to the modified attitude of the Swiss Parliament. In selecting a replacement for its ageing Venoms the Swiss commission for Military Defence required that the new combat aircraft must be able to attack strongly defended targets, to have the ability to defend itself and, if necessary and possible, to take over the protection of less powerful aircraft. Stress was also placed on payload and radius of action, avionics, advanced development status and on cost. Airborne agility, airfield per formance and bombed-airfield capa bility were held to be of only secondary importance. A notable misconception is that the Harrier must operate from dispersed sites, and hence the logistic support problems are intensified. It is stressed that dispersed-site operation is only one of many options open to the Harrier. In Switzerland, however, one would envisage the major concept as one of operation from existing mountain airfields. This means that under realistic wartime conditions, when the airfield was attacked by missiles or bombs, the Harrier would remain fully operational, whereas the best of conventional aircraft would be essentially paralysed. Other concepts could include the use of small civil airfields and obsolete military air fields, thus giving much more flexi bility to the air force commander in the field. In addition, the Harrier saves valuable land by eliminating the need for runway extensions. It has also been asked whether the Harrier meets the Swiss requirement for payload and radius of action. The key to Harrier operation lies in its ex tremely short take-off run of between 300m and 400m of perimeter track, bombed runway, road or even grass. The Harrier S, equipped with a 3901it, 86gal centreline tank, two gun pods, four 450kg, 1,0001b bombs and two Sidewinders, has a radius of action of 250km, 135 n.m. at an altitude of 1,000m. This figure includes a fuel allowance for six minutes in the tar get area, a GCA and landing, and taxi to dispersal. As a comparison this represents three times the radius of action of the Hunter Mk 58 armed with four 450kg bombs. In addition the aircraft can operate using a vertical take-off for specialised operations, but with a reduced pay- load and radius of action. A further notable misconception is that the Harrier is not a fully de veloped combat aircraft. The aircraft has, in fact, 13 years of design, de velopment and production back ground. Five front-line squadrons are at present formed—two in Britain, two in Germany and one in America. The extent of the development is exemplified by the rapid and success ful evaluation by the US Marine Corps, which began in the autumn of 1968 and resulted in the first squadron forming last spring. On the development status of the avionics and weapons-delivery sys tems it can be said that the aircraft is a fully integrated weapons system embodying the Ferranti FE541 Inas (Inertial navigation and attack sys tem). The system has been cleared fully with a wide range of British and American weapons. Design, costing and timescale studies have been made covering specific Swiss requirements, such as laser ranging and the use of the Electronique Marcel Dassault Aida II fixed radar. Hawker Siddeley claims that these requirements can be met within existing delivery timescales and within the costs submitted in the company's proposal to the Swiss Government. A point of particular relevance to the Swiss requirement is the Harrier's suitability for operation and mainten ance by a militia air force. Because of the RAF's requirement to operate the Harrier away from main bases for long periods of time, servicing and maintenace have been made particu larly easy. With the additional specialised training required for main tenance of the avionics system, Hawker Siddeley claims that the Har rier can easily be maintained by crews capable of servicing the Hunter. As an intercepter the Harrier scores well over conventional aircraft, its advantages lying in a high thrust-to- weight ratio and acceleration and good climb and turn performance. In fact it has been shown—though not in operational service—that the Harrier is capable of out-turning the MiG-21F by a substantial margin, assuming a sea-level combat at Mach 0-9. Coupled with turning performance is the Harrier's high specific excess power (SEP) figure—both positive and negative by virtue of thrust vec toring—which gives it a unique oppor tunity in evading air-to-air attacks and in turn becoming the attacker.
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