US Marine Harrier Crashes into California Homes

#3
#3
Supposedly there is a video floating around that someone took of the pilot either landing or just after landing in the street from ejecting.
 
#5
#5
Proof we should invest 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 more in the JSF program, even though we're not really sure of its capabilities yet.
 
#6
#6
Toujours Pret said:
Proof we should invest 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 more in the JSF program, even though we're not really sure of its capabilities yet.
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Never understood the reasons for having harriers or the JSF with the "jumping" ability. Load out a AH-1 and you have fulfilled the role at a fraction of the cost.
 
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#10
#10
BearCat204 said:
Never understood the reasons for having harriers or the JSF with the "jumping" ability. Load out a AH-1 and you have fulfilled the role at a fraction of the cost.
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The Marines bought into the AV-8 Harrier because it offered the ability to bring fixed-wing air support to the battlefield in a way that Cobras (yes, the Marines use them as well: now in the AH-1Z version) can't. During the battle for Peleliu, the Marines had seized an airfield about a mile or so from the main fighting along the Umubrugol Ridge. They put F4U Corsairs on the airstrip and could call them for close air support and have bombs, rockets and napalm on Japanese strong points in a matter of minutes. In one instance a Corsair took off, hit the target and landed without raising its landing gear. The mission lasted about 10 minutes.

Bloody Beaches: The Marines at Peleliu (Post-assault Operations in the Palaus)

The Harriers offered the ability to put this kind of CAS on the beach head as the VTOL function eliminated the need for an airfield. Later, the Harriers proved ideal to base on the LHA and LHD amphibious carriers. Other wise the Marines would have been forced to rely on USN carriers (as they do for their F-18 Hornets.) Cobras are useless in air-to-air combat. The Harriers can carry AMRAAMs and Sidewinders which are the same weapons the F-18s use.

Finally, the Harrier proved its worth in the 1982 Falklands War where they held their own in air combat against supersonic Mirage III fighters of the Argentine AF while also performing admirably in their original air-to-mud close air support mission.

Lost in all this is the fact that the Navy lost an F-18 within 24 hours of the Harrier crash. However since it didn't blow up in a CA community close to TV cameras, nobody noticed.

Pilot Ejects as Navy Jet Crashes Into Sea - ABC News

A friend of mine who used to drive fast-movers off carriers baldly stated one time that they expected to lose at least one plane and a crew every time the carrier deployed.
 
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#11
#11

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#12
#12
#16
#16
Only going to get more of these as our combat fleet continues to age. We better hope the F-35 is worth the investment because if not we could be in trouble in the future.
 
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