Which countries seriously considered buying Harriers but chose not to?

Quite right Graham – I misremembered, it was a painting of the Army A-4 concept. It was an old desk model of the Harrier in those markings I saw.

From memory, the desk model was a kestrel in Army markings (But I’d need to check) – made at the time of the TES evaluation.

One of the more interesting/strangest reported interests was from japan, who apparently were interested in the T10 for the Maritime Self Defence Force. Can’t remember the reason for the interest, but it was specifically the two seater and specifically the more operationally capable British version. They were also reportedly interested in the AV-8B+ at a different time.

BAE were also hopeful of a Sea Harrier sale to Australia after they ‘bought’ Invincible

Quite right Graham – I misremembered, it was a painting of the Army A-4 concept. It was an old desk model of the Harrier in those markings I saw.

Any concept showing US Army Harriers is likely to be Invention – they were most interested/involved in the Kestrel days and I believe that there is still a Kestrel in the US Army museum. However these ideas offended the USAF and there was severe territorial disputes at high level in the Pentagon. The ruling came down that the Army was not to fly combat jets or indeed any aircraft larger than a certain weight, which meant the transfer of tactical transports to the USAF. Caribou? Possibly any Northrop connection predated this, but in that case it predated the Harrier too.

Wow, I was only really expecting one or two European countries!

Patton is buried in Luxembourg? I didn’t know that!

4,000 metres! What country are the landing lights in?

All within the commune of Sandweiler. Which also houses the main German and US war cemeteries, in the latter of which Patton’s bones reside.

South Korea showed some interest in British-built airframes in the late 1980s and was later considered a candidate for the II+

Singapore and Malaysia were offered new-build II+ as well, I would have thought they’d be a good fit for the former but nothing came of the effort.

Thailand looked at the II / II+ but bawlked at the price and ended-up with a typically messy and unmaintainable mix of second-hand A-7s and AV-8s.

There’s concept art online of a US Army GR.1-esque variant in overall Olive Drab and hi-viz markings reminiscent of early Mohawks and Caribou, and I’m sure I read somewhere that Northrop was to be the contracted builder. I’m unsure if the discussion was before or after the trials involving a fly-off between A-4, F-5 and G.91.

The Middle East was seen as a strong sales potential, replacing Hunters. The sales effort was knocked when G-VTOL crashed due to brown-out in a dust cloud of her own making.

The Chinese interest was strong, they were looking for a land-based Sea Harrier variant for the Russian border. Inflation and various other issues killed that one, although post-Falklands their rep apparently said if they’d known it was that good they’d have spent the money.

Both Chile and Zimbabwe were seen as potential candidates for ex-RAF GR3s.

Both France and Italy looked at Sea Harriers at one point, Italy going for AV-8B+, France updating their SUE ad F-8s

One of the Harrier books had a good chapter on the sales effort and the potential for each sales prospect

Israel apparently thought long and hard about acquiring sixty Harriers somewhere after the 1967 Six-Day War.

There was a great deal of interest by the Swiss, including demonstrations in Switzerland and a delegation flying the aircraft in the UK.

I seem to remember that a Swiss pilot crashed the demonstrator pretty quickly and that that was the end of it all.

Only a 4,000 metre concrete one. But otherwise, yes no paved runways.

Egg on face

4,000 metres! What country are the landing lights in?

Luxembourg? No runways of course.

Only a 4,000 metre concrete one. But otherwise, yes no paved runways.

I thought the Harrier GR3 in China was swapped for something ‘historic’ by a private organisation in the UK?

Edit: a quick Google reveals that it was swapped by Ray Hanna for an La-9!

I knew it wasn’t part of a procurement deal – I just couldn’t find a tongue-in-cheek emoticon to go with it….. :apologetic:

Ken

The Harrier was one of the options looked at as a Skyhawk replacement for New Zealand in the 1980’s, but they then decided to upgrade the existing A-4K airframes and made then into the Kahu models instead.

Per Lindstrand, now best known for his balloon work, told me many years ago that he had been part of the Swedish team that had checked out the Harrier pretty thoroughly.

I thought the Harrier GR3 in China was swapped for something ‘historic’ by a private organisation in the UK?

Edit: a quick Google reveals that it was swapped by Ray Hanna for an La-9!

the Chinese were said to be interested

We donated one to the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Museum…….

Ken