Hawker
P.1154 RN Osprey / Sea Harrier
Hawker P.1154 RN Osprey/Sea Harrier. 804 Sqn Fleet Air Arm, HMS HERMES, 1978 (What-if?).
The P.1154 was Hawker's original proposal for an in-service VSTOL aircraft developed from the P.1127. With the powerful BS.100 engine it would have been supersonic, whilst a full size AI radar and BVR missiles would have given it a weapons capability similar to the Phantom. Predictably, it was not to be; trying to build a ground attack aircraft for the RAF and a Fleet fighter for the RN using the same airframe was always an unrealistic target. In addition, the Plenum Chamber Burning ( a sort of vectored afterburner) which was needed for supersonic flight never really worked and in any event, it produced extreme exhaust temperatures that would have buckled any ship's deck.
Although the RAF's single seater P.1154 was officially named Harrier before its cancellation, the P.11154 RN was cancelled before it was named. Osprey was certainly one possible option, although it might simply have been the Sea Harrier. Instead, a basic "operationalised" version of the P.1127 became the GR.1 RAF Harrier that we all know, while the RN received the excellent F-4K Phantom instead (which it had wanted all-along).
But, What-if?..........
The Hawker Siddeley Osprey served as the RN's front line fighter from 1974, until it was withdrawn from service with the last of the RN carriers in 1987.
Although never tested in combat, it came closest during the little known Falkland Islands incident of 1982 - In February of that year, a group of Argentinian scrap dealers with tacit government support, landed on South Georgia and raised the Argentine flag, raising the spectre of a renewed Argentinian claim to the Falkland Islands or Malvinas.
A fully armed
Hawker Siddeley Osprey FRS.1 of 804 Naval Air Sqn prepares to launch from
the ramp of HMS
HERMES in poor weather, March 1981 (PO Phot F. Stop).
Fearing that the situation might get out of hand, the British Government quickly sailed the aircraft carriers HERMES and BULWARK, with their full complement of Osprey FRS.1 fighters, publicly announcing that they would exercise in the South Atlantic. This overt show of force was not lost on the Argentine government, who quickly and quietly removed their citizens from South Georgia, thus averting the crisis.
Nevertheless, the Fleet continued to sail south, and in a bizarre twist of fortune, spent nearly 2 months exercising with the Argentine, Brazilian and Chilean Navies, forging new friendships and strongly influencing the later sale of large numbers of British ships and aircraft to the region.
Another Osprey of
804 Naval Air Sqn, conducting Ski Jump trials
onboard HMS HERMES
in the English Channel, May 1981 (RN Official Photo).
RN Ospreys finally left service when the last British Carrier, HMS HERMES was sold to India in 1987; the sale included two squadrons of the more advanced BAe Osprey FA.2, and these aircraft remain in Indian Navy service to this day, and are currently being upgraded locally by Hindusatn Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to FA.3 standard.
An Osprey awaits
refuelling in the after deck park, during cross-deck operations
with HMS BULWARK's
892 Sqn in the Bay of Biscay, June 1981 (Photo - Cdr I. M. Wafu RN).
The Indian navy
operated 10 BAe Osprey FA.21 from the INS VIRAAT (ex HERMES),
equipped with
Matra Magic AA missiles and Sea Eagle ASMs in lieu of Red Top .
The Italian Marina Militare was also quick to acquire the P.1154 for service onboard the rebuilt WW2 Carrier AQUILA. Aermacchi (now Hawker Aermacchi) was granted a licence to build the aircraft as the Falco Del Mare (Sea Eagle), powered by a Fiat assembled variant of the BS.100 engine.
Italian Falcos are now included in the multinational NATO "Talon Force, Southern Europe" joint support programme, shared with the Navies of Spain, Portugal, Algeria and France, who also operate P.1154 naval and land based variants.
Link to P.1154 RN model build page
Copyright 2009 Fred Tulloch
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