Sea Harrier fighter fly in formation
Four of the last six Sea Harrier FA.2s flown by the Fleet Air Arm perform a flypast over their hangar at RNAS Yeovilton a fortnight before the type (and apparently) 801 Naval Air Squadron was axed. The weather was awful, the lens used at that time was very basic but it came off as good as you could expect considering. Even now, nearly two years on, I can't help thinking that from so many recent examples, this was clearly the craziest short sighted, cost cutting decision of them all. The Jaguars are gone (another piece of pure genius), the Tornado is unsuitable, the Typhoon is not ready, so the small RAF Harrier force is exhausted by it's unrelenting commitment to Afghanistan. Did nobody really bother to think that a squadron's worth of reliable, gun equipped (unlike the RAF Harriers) FA.2s flown by FAA pilots whose excellence at CAS was unquestioned would be suitable to deploy in turn and relieve the pressure on the RAF Harrier fleet. Oh, and keep a decent carrier deployable air defence fighter as well
