Word: harriers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Warships had begun shelling Argentine positions prior to the attack, while Harrier jets bombed the garrison in, as the British Defense Ministry put it, a final "softening-up operation." Interrupting the broadcast of a Mass being celebrated by Pope John Paul II (see following story), Argentine, television broadcast a communique that accused the British of "indiscriminately" bombing Port Stanley. It said that two civilian residents of the island capital had been killed and four others wounded...
With the high ground under their control, the British immediately began to rain artillery fire down on the 7,500 Argentine troops, which were entrenched in a defensive horseshoe around Port Stanley. Harrier vertical-takeoff jets pounded the area with 600-lb. cluster bombs, while 4.5-in. guns on Royal Navy frigates and destroyers added their drumbeat of fire. As the week began, the dense, rain-filled clouds that shrouded Port Stanley seemed to be the only barrier to a full-scale attack. But Rear Admiral John ("Sandy") Woodward and Major General John Jeremy Moore, the two commanders to whom...
...same devices that give the Harrier its ability to take off vertically also permit it to outmaneuver conventional aircraft by using a technique known as "viffing" (from Vector in Forward Flight). By adjusting his exhaust nozzles to reverse the thrust, the pilot can cause his plane to decelerate rapidly and veer to the side. "You want to smash through the canopy, but the harness tightens over your shoulders, holds you down at the waist. You think you are stopping at 12,000 ft.," wrote British Journalist John Edwards, who was given a demonstration ride in a Harrier last week...
Once he gets an enemy plane in front of him, a Harrier pilot can rely on sophisticated electronics to make his kill. The forward-and down-looking "Blue Fox" radar spots the target at distances of up to 40 miles. A TV-like display screen on the windshield flashes the computerized tracking data that tell the pilot when to fire. Since the latest version of the Sidewinder missile carried by the Sea Harrier has what the experts call a wide-angle "boresight," the pilot only has to aim in the general direction of his target-within 40 degrees-and press...
Until the Sea Harrier faced its first real full-scale combat test, no one knew for sure how it would perform its many duties. Its success over the South Atlantic, notes a veteran Harrier pilot, proves that even in the microchip age "mobility, flexibility and surprise are still as important as they ever were...