Saturday, April 28, 2012

Book read: Sea Harrier Over The Falklands by Commander "Sharkey" Ward

A very interesting account of the Sea Harriers operated from HMS Invincible during the Falklands war. Ward gives a very good account with plenty of technical detail, the threats they faced and gives a taste of the danger involved in the operation.

Ward also gives a good description of the tensions between Invincible and Hermes squadrons. It is his perception that a lot of Flag orders were not well thought through when it came to over tasking the Harriers on Invincible. Also his account implies that the squadron on HMS Hermes just were not as capable or comfortable with operating the Harrier effectively. This is pretty astounding, and is the first time I've heard of such a split - but his account is so compelling it is hard to discount.

He also has no time for the RAF, stating that the Vulcan raids were vastly expensive and achieved little but provide the RAF with a token gesture during the war. He feels the Fleet Air Arm were the forgotten ones, as it is they who provided the only realistic air cover.

He also feels the Navy just did not do enough to promote their role in getting the operation off to a successful start - without the landings there would have been no recovery. It is thought provoking stuff, since the Navy now is probably the service that is suffering most and is most unbalanced in capability in the defence cuts.

The one other thing is that you come away with a sense of admiration for these pilots, they were asked to do a lot and perhaps were not best remembered for it.

The man himself has a blog, and talks about our current hopeless defence procurement:

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