July 2, 2026:
Last month, the American Marine Corps retired its 55-year-old AV-8B Harrier II Jump Jets, whose four rotating jet engine nozzles allowed it to hover and take off or land vertically. That allowed the jets to operate from places without runways or from the decks of Navy ships, staying closer to combat operations compared to fighter jets that required air bases or airports with full runways.
On the ground, the Marines who maintained the Harriers noted that the aircraft was troublesome and difficult to maintain. The Harrier has an extremely bad safety record in part because of persistent engine problems.
The 11.4 ton Harrier entered service in 1985. It was 14.3 meters long with a nine-meter wingspan. Max speed was 1,176 kilometers an hour. Combat range varied according to mission, and the most common one was 670 kilometers. Max ferry range was 5,600 kilometers. Normal endurance was 90 minutes, but that could be expanded to seven hours with aerial refueling. Weapons included two 30mm autocannon pods under the fuselage and 2.23 tons of bombs and missiles carried under the wings. Italy and Spain also acquired Harriers, building some of them locally under license.
337 American Harriers were built between 1981 and 2003. These aircraft saw action in the 1990-91 Gulf War while operating off Marine Amphibious ships and land bases. The 86 Harriers involved flew 3,380 times, with five lost to ground fire. After the war, from 1992 to 2003, Harriers continued patrols over Iraq to ensure Iraqi compliance with a no-fly zone.
The American aircraft was developed from the original British Harrier, which entered service in 1969 and was retired in 2006 after 278 were built between 1967 and 1974. These Harriers saw heavy combat during the British successful 1982 effort to remove Argentine forces from the Falkland Islands. In 1999, Harriers were bombing Yugoslavia as part of the Kosovo conflict. Starting in 2001, Harriers were active over Afghanistan. In 2003, Harriers were active in the Iraq War to overthrow Saddam Hussein. In this conflict, Harriers had an availability rate of 85 percent, down from 90 percent a decade earlier. Harriers also used the Litening Targeting Pod, which allowed pilots to see what was on the ground in great detail and bomb targets quickly and accurately. In 2011, Harriers operated over Libya enforcing a No-Fly zone. Harriers also operated over Somalia throughout the 1990s, Liberia in 1990, 1996, and 2003, Rwanda in 1994, the Central African Republic in 1996, Albania in 1997, Zaire in 1997, and Sierra Leone in 1997.
The Harrier became famous for its spectacular movie appearances, like the 1994 film True Lies, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger piloted a Harrier as he prevented an Islamic terrorist nuclear holocaust.
The Harrier was replaced by the 27-ton F-35B with a range of 1,700 kilometers and a combat radius of nearly a thousand kilometers. This aircraft can carry 6.8 tons of weapons.