Themes
Conflict and Change
Learning
The Sea Harrier
The role of the Sea Harrier during the Falklands conflict
Although in Service with the Navy from 1979, the Sea Harrier still had much to prove when it entered into the Falklands War in 1982. The Sea Harrier is smaller than comparable fighters and had been regarded as toy-like and not of great practical use. Some commentators even saw it as a vanity exercise by a struggling British Avionics industry.
During the Campaign the Harrier undertook low-level ground attacks, as seen in the retaking of Darwin and Goose Green and were also the main element of the Combat Air Patrol (CAP) that protected British forces. The main losses incurred by Sea Harriers were from the appalling weather conditions or from ground fire in low flying support of the troops. The Falklands conflict saw the Sea Harriers emerge with a greatly enhanced reputation.
Over the whole conflict the Argentine air force lost 32 aircraft to Harrier attacks, the Sidewinder missile accounting for 18, cluster bombs and canon accounting for 13 more, whilst one Puma helicopter crashed trying to evade Harrier and ground fire. During air-to-air combat Harriers destroyed 23 aircraft for the loss of none of their own. Once a target was sighted, normally visually, the Sea Harriers would pounce from above and once a sidewinder was locked on, the target had little chance of escape.
The serviceability of the Sea Harrier allowed it to fly 300 operational sorties during the critical days of the 21-25 May compared to 180 sorties by the Argentinian air forces. This capacity for it to fly more sorties went a long way to combat the huge disparity in the size of the two air forces.
Follow the links to find more about...
The Sea Harrier
