The Harrier - Jumping Jet Flash Decisive Weapons

TYRES SCREECH

The Harrier jump jet is one of the most unlikely war winners ever seen.

Its ability to take off and land vertically was revolutionary,

but it was unstable and hazardous at first.

Having finally got hovering right, the Harrier would take 20 years to prove itself.

But when it did, it would write history.

"I counted them all out, and I counted them all back."

The Harrier was fundamental to the Falklands.

Without it, we would not have been able to set up a task force to sail south to do what was done.

In April l982, it was make or break for the Harrier,

as the British task force sailed to retake the Falklands.

We couldn't have fought the Falklands campaign if we'd not had the Harrier.

You're right in calling it a decisive weapon.

Certainly, without the Harrier, we wouldn't have attempted to go back and reinvest the Falklands.

The protection of the British fleet and troops was entrusted solely to the Harrier -

a plane never before tested in war and never trusted by its critics.

People did not believe it would do everything we said it would.

It didn't matter how much you flew it.

They didn't believe it until 1982, when the plane was used in the Falklands.

Everybody was amazed. They said, "Golly, it does what you said it would!"

The Harrier was the perfect weapon for that war.

If the RAF and Royal Navy didn't have the Harrier and Sea Harrier,

Margaret Thatcher would just have had to accept that we had lost the Falklands.

The story of the Falklands War is the story of 20 Harriers against a 200-strong Argentinian Air Force:

the unlikely victory of an unlikely aeroplane.

To fight a war with aeroplanes, the first thing is to get there.

In peacetime, you don't know where "there" is.

"There" may be a road, a small clearing, a car park, a ship.

The only aeroplane I know that can fly from any of them is a Harrier.

The Harrier's purpose was to dispense with the need for runways.

It is the only plane in the Western world to master vertical take-off. But it was not the first attempt.

Vertical take-off propulsion became a worldwide aviation obsession after World War II.

The British got in first with the "Flying Bedstead" - a hovering Rolls-Royce engine on legs.

Incorporating the principle into a functioning aeroplane

would take nearly a decade of stops and starts.

Even those that got off the ground didn't get much further.

Well, it certainly was a bit cranky in those early days.

I started work on vertical take-off type aeroplanes in the mid-50s.

I was sitting next to a guy called Ralph Hooper

in the Hawker Aircraft Limited project office, in 1957,

and Ralph Hooper did the first drawings of what eventually became the 1127,

and subsequently the Harrier.

We regarded it at the time more as an interesting engineering exercise.

But it turned out to be an enormously important breakthrough.

The principle behind it was simplicity itself -

four rotating nozzles on a jet engine could direct thrust downwards.

This is just a single engine, where the air comes out in four places instead of the normal one.

Just splitting it in four places. On the end of each outlet is a rotating nozzle.

In the cockpit, one lever enables me to swivel those nozzles together.

That aside, it's just anybody else's jet fighter. What a wonderful achievement!

By the mid-60s, the Harrier was the world's only high-performance vertical take-off plane.

But no-one would buy it.

Unable to match the speed of supersonic fighters, it was seen as a novelty -

fine for doing tricks at airshows, but in combat, a jack of all trades, perhaps master of none -

not able to carry as many bombs as a bomber; nimble in the air, but not as fast as a fighter.

Initially, the Navy - the Fleet Air Arm - and the Royal Air Force were, frankly, a bit hostile.

It wasn't supersonic, it didn't carry a big weapon load a long distance.

The phrase of the day in the late '50s, early '60s was "Hah! That little thing?

"Couldn't carry cigarettes across a football field!"

In 1968, the US Marines broke with conventional wisdom and bought the Harrier.

They were not concerned with speed.

They were more interested in the Harrier's ability to operate away from runways.

The purchase alerted NATO to the Harrier's value.

NATO...became very conscious that,

if there was a Warsaw Pact march west,

there are very few runways, and they would be the first targets to be attacked.

So there was a hankering after an aeroplane that didn't need runways.

In 1969, finally convinced of the plane's unique abilities, the RAF formed its first Harrier squadron.

However, it was still not recognized as a front-line fighter.

Instead, the RAF adopted the Harrier as a ground-support plane

which could operate close to enemy lines without conventional runways.

But even in this limited role, the Harrier quickly won the enthusiasm of its new RAF pilots.

We were attempting to put the aeroplane into a new context,

taking it away from airfields based on concrete,

and operating in the field in a way that helicopters had done, but fighters had not.

We were Boy Scouts in the field with a high-performance jet. That was great fun!

To fly a Harrier was the most exhilarating thing one could experience in the world.

Now, at last, the Harrier would get its chance as a fighter - thanks, ironically, to defence cuts.

In the 1970s, the Royal Navy lost its big aircraft carriers,

and with them, the supersonic jets of the Fleet Air Arm.

Taking their place were new, smaller carriers designed for helicopters.

The Navy put up its hands in horror.

How were they supposed to have air defence at sea,

once outside the range of RAF aircraft?

The Navy came up with helicopter carriers.

But, surprise, surprise, you could operate Harriers from these,

and now you had the possibility of naval air cover.

They weren't happy. But it was all they were going to get.

This was the Harrier's big chance.

Having been shunned for years, the Harrier was to be the Royal Navy's salvation.

To make it suitable for operation at sea, changes were made to the Harrier's navigational system.

The Navy would be the first service to use the Harrier as a fighter.

The new plane, in service from 1980, was called the Sea Harrier.

It fell to the Fleet Air Arm to prove what it could do.

The first squadron was 800 Squadron.

I was chosen to head the trials unit, and then the headquarters squadron.

A very exciting episode, generating the aeroplane from paperwork into reality.

Having gone into military service despite setbacks,

the Harrier was now ready for its ultimate test.

Just 18 months later, that test arrived.

For years and years we'd said,

"We want a small war, where the Harrier can show itself to advantage.

"Not many people killed, that's cruel."

We had one. The Falklands.

OFFICER SHOUTS ORDERS IN SPANISH

MARGARET THATCHER: 'British sovereign territory has been invaded by a foreign power.

'After several days of rising tension in our relations with Argentina,

'that country's armed forces attacked the Falkland Islands yesterday,

'and established military control of the islands.'

As the British task force set off, victory was far from certain.

The Falklands lay 8,000 miles away,

beyond the range of any friendly airfield.

With no aircraft carriers,

the best that Britain could do was to load two helicopter carriers with Sea Harriers.

There were 20 of them to meet all the needs of combat -

drop bombs, do reconnaissance, provide ground support.

And take on an Argentinian air force and navy of over 200 aircraft.

On the way down, it was clear we were short of air defence.

The air force couldn't provide it.

We had 20 aircraft against 200 Argentine aircraft who would attack the fleet.

Our admiral in Somerset told our wives, while we were on the way down,

that 75% of us would not return, which was a very silly thing to do.

Some of my guys thought the same.

We were looked upon like being given the Last Supper by some of the crew,

until they realised how confident we were.

We had a ten-to-one disadvantage in the air.

Conventional wisdom says that you are up against heavy odds.

To a fighter pilot, it's a target-rich environment.

Fighting began on the 1st of May.

Port Stanley airfield was a crucial target -

used by Argentina for delivering supplies and basing aircraft.

The first test for the Sea Harriers was to bomb Port Stanley.

MACHINE-GUN FIRE

I came round the side of the airfield,

and I saw a tracer start to come towards me.

Someone was trying to shoot down my mum's little boy.

There was a bloody great BANG,

and the whole aircraft started vibrating. I'd been hit.

I discovered, in fact, a 20mm shell had gone through my tail.

It made a small entry hole on the left, and a hole the size of my head on the right.

I couldn't read the instruments, the vibration was so severe,

but we got it back on board, and it was flying the next morning.

That was my first taste of action.

That was the famous sortie Brian Hanrahan described in his dispatch.

"I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid,

"but I counted them all out, and I counted them all back."

Although the raid failed to put the airfield out of action,

it deterred the Argentines from basing important aircraft there.

The bulk of missions would have to be flown from mainland Argentina -

leaving their aircraft with little fuel over the Falklands.

Having acquitted themselves as bombers, the Harriers would now be tested as fighters.

They were up against a great military jet - the French Mirage.

It was the kind of supersonic, specialist fighter the Harrier was thought to be no match for.

Now would come the telling contest.

The Mirage was a fairly formidable aircraft. It had twice our speed.

That was a problem.

Faster doesn't necessarily mean better in terms of fighting.

We had an adage that the quicker they got there, the quicker they'd die.

For our tactics of fighting against the enemy, we used a manoeuvre called the hook manoeuvre -

sending one aircraft in from ahead, one from behind, and putting them in a sandwich.

Like the army pincer movement. It's good strategy. It worked.

On day one we shot down two aircraft.

The first two aircraft destroyed in the war were Mirages.

Britain's pilots had been proved right, and the Harrier had laid to rest the myth of its inferiority.

On the first day of air combat, Harriers shot down four Argentinian jets. No Harriers were lost.

Even more of a problem than the enemy was the appalling weather.

Early on 6th May, two Harriers collided in thick fog.

Both pilots were killed. There were just 18 planes left.

18 aircraft would keep the RAF going for two-thirds of a day

in the Battle of Britain.

Fortunately, the RAF brought in its squadron, No. 1 Squadron, with six Harriers,

and No. 1 Squadron did have reinforcements during the conflict.

We flew direct from the UK to Ascension Island - a 9½ hour flight.

We then transferred them onto Atlantic Conveyor.

Once we got down to the carriers,

the Royal Navy concentrated on the air-to-air portion of the war,

and we covered air-to-ground, which was our specialisation.

The RAF Harriers arrived just before British troops landed, and gave vital ground support.

The Sea Harriers were now able to concentrate on protecting the fleet from air attack.

On the 21st of May alone, nine Argentine attackers were shot down.

Sharkey Ward got one of them in the morning.

In the afternoon, he spotted a bomber flown by Carlos Tomba.

HE SPEAKS IN SPANISH:

It was a no-hope situation for the Pucara.

I was firing from his six o'clock, from behind him, on three runs,

hitting him each time.

IN SPANISH:

He stayed with it until he had no engine, no fuselage, no wing.

Then he got out at the last minute.

A very brave man.

IN SPANISH:

He represented everything good about the Argentinian air force.

Very brave and professional - he did all he could to save his aeroplane.

While the courage of the Argentine pilots was never in doubt, their tactics were.

I think the Argentinian pilots were very, very poorly briefed.

Perhaps if they'd been briefed that there was a fighter threat, a great threat from the Harriers,

perhaps they would have fought the war slightly differently.

Argentina's commanders ordered the pilots to bomb the British fleet.

They were to avoid the Harriers at all costs.

With no fighter escort, and armed with bombs not missiles, they were easy prey for the Sea Harriers.

Their command told them "Don't engage the Sea Harrier". Big mistake.

They should have told them "Kill every Sea Harrier you come across.

"Ditch your ground-attack weapons, use guns or missiles.

"Take losses. Providing you kill one Sea Harrier for every five we lose,

"by the end of the week the war will be over. No Sea Harriers left."

IN SPANISH:

On 5 June, four Argentine Skyhawks attacked British landing craft.

As the first Skyhawk went in, David Morgan's Harrier intercepted.

The first one dropped a bomb which hit the back of the landing craft,

which made me very, very angry. More angry than I've ever been.

From then on, there was none of this bullshit about shoot the plane, but don't kill the pilot.

IN SPANISH:

I fired a Sidewinder missile, which went straight up his jet pipe.

A very large explosion, and almost nothing came out of it,

no bits larger than a dinner plate. A huge ball of fire, and he went into the water.

Morgan shot down two Skyhawks in the engagement.

A third was destroyed by another Harrier. Only one attacker escaped.

A couple of years ago, I met the Skyhawk pilot who got away.

A guy called Hector Sanchez.

I'd gone into the fight so quickly that I'd overtaken him in my dive.

He was behind me, and might have been able to get a shot at me with his gun.

IN SPANISH:

The Harrier now dominated the skies over the Falklands.

The biggest concern was the weather - force ten gales, 50ft waves, and unrelenting rain.

The weather was very cold - it was the Southern Hemisphere's winter.

We got three hours of light a day.

Most operations were done in the dark.

You had wind, snow, rain, waves coming over the deck.

Even on the Hermes, with her ramp, you had waves coming over the top.

IN SPANISH:

With such a small force of Harriers, protecting the fleet meant keeping them in the air around the clock.

We had eight aeroplanes on board, and we were asked to do

at least half the night, alert, sitting in the cockpit on deck,

with one pilot in the crew room ready to go, fully dressed.

If you work it out mathematically, to do that all night with 11 pilots,

it meant you were awake all night and then you were flying all day.

We didn't really notice that it was hard at the time,

but the stress was there - I'd have five minutes to myself in a day.

I was in tears of frustration at times, when things didn't go right.

The Harriers were taking off all the time. We had at least four Harriers in the air at all times.

We launched nearly every Harrier we had,

and by the time they got back, they rolled them into another operation.

They took off straight away. They just went off onto a different role.

We flew, in 801 Squadron, I think it was 695 sorties - missions.

We only missed one aircraft mission through unserviceability,

which by any measurement in the modern world of aeroplanes, or even racing cars, it's incredible.

Which is why I love it so much.

On the 14th of June, Argentinian forces surrendered. The Falklands War was over.

The plane which few would have chosen had proved itself.

The Sea Harrier had shot down 23 Argentinian aircraft without losing a single plane in air combat.

A further nine Argentinian aircraft were destroyed in ground attacks.

In its unparalleled versatility,

the Harrier was established as more than a jack of all trades - it was the master of them.

A lot of people were surprised at how well the Harrier did -

they didn't know enough about the aeroplane.

The people that knew it - that worked it, engineered it, flew it -

they were RELIEVED that it did what they thought it could do in war, but they weren't surprised.

I remember saying, years before the Falklands,

that if I had to go to war, the aircraft I wanted was the Harrier.

I was lucky. It happened that way, and the aircraft proved itself.

The Harrier remains in front-line service today, in Britain and around the world.

In the Gulf War and in Bosnia, it has maintained a combat presence.

For those involved from the beginning, the Harrier has become all they had ever hoped.

We had anxieties in the earlier days, the late 50s, early 60s,

that the aeroplane wouldn't be officially recognized

and put into squadron use.

We were sustained and buoyed up

by the hope that our essential belief in the rightness of the aeroplane

would cause it to, er, to be adopted.

Subtitles by Tom Shearer BBC Scotland - 1996