Quote:
Originally Posted by Panther Al
I agree that the Harriers did well over the South Atlantic, but do remember they was playing defence against aircraft that was there to attack ships, not play with the defenders any more than they have to: never did any Argie aircraft go out with the specific mission of peeling back the CAP. If they had, I think the record of the Harrier wouldn't have been as good down that way, and they might have done better at knocking back the RN with their attack aircraft.
That said, they did do better than a lot of folks would have guessed before the whole thing got kicked off.
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I don't know how other countries teach Harrier fighting, but the US Marines are heavy into "VIFFing" -- Vectoring In Forward Flight. A Harrier can do things with VIFFing like rolling over and dropping right onto the six of an enemy, push the Harrier into tighter turns, pitch the nose up or down quickly, do short faster climbs, or perform an Immelman easier then a normal aircraft. The downside is that when VIFFing you can easily bleed off airspeed faster than you expected, leading to an unexpected stall, and that the heat signature of the Harrier blooms when VIFFing.