From the publisher,
The Harrier GR 7/9 was at the 'tip of the spear' for the RAF when it came to employing weapons against well-equipped standing armies and irregular forces in the 1990s and during the first decade of the new millennium. Assigned to the Harrier GR 7/9 Force, the aircraft undertook No Fly Zone patrols over northern Iraq, supported UN forces in the Balkans and embarked in Royal Navy carriers to bolster the RAF presence ashore in the Arabian Gulf. Harrier GR 7s also flew from HMS Illustrious over Sierra Leone in 2000 and were involved in the second Gulf War during early 2003 acting as Close Air Support for Coalition forces.
Using first-hand accounts from his extensive Service contacts, supported by both official and personal photographs and 30 artwork profiles illustrating the wide range of colours worn and ordnance employed by the 'jump jet', Michael Napier provides a rare insider's look at the deployment of Harrier GR 7/9 up to its withdrawal from RAF service in 2010. Moreover, Napier also covers the numerous upgrades received by the aircraft over the years, from more powerful engines to the creation of the GR 9/9A variants in 2005.
Contents
Chapter 1 Northern Iraq and Belize
Chapter 2 Bosnia
Chapter 3 Carrier Operations
Chapter 4 Kosovo
Chapter 5 Iraq
Chapter 6 Afghanistan
Appendices
Colour plates commentary
Index
Review
A very good read, well written, informative, and written with the authority and authenticity of a former pilot.
While each chapter is comparatively short, they are packed with detail and contain a highlight available to the author for that deployment.
I found the carrier chapter very interesting in that the difficulties of landing a Harrier on a carrier are explained. The aircraft had to maintain a forward airspeed hover to match the carrier, land with the deck flat to the sea, with a maximum weight that meant the minimum of fuel with no margin of error. Then do it at night.
Also, the Kosovo chapter, where the pilot explains how he kept his job through an anomaly of the system after a weapons malfunction. And, before that, how the deployed was under pressure to produce some good news and it was identified there was a new enemy, the press (media).
The Harrier came into its own in Afghanistan, flying "hot and high", with the GR 9A and mixing it up with, variously, A 10, B 1, F/A 18, and Mirage aircraft.
The author keeps the narrative on track, the book is pure content cover to cover, and does not go off on a tangent. Very welcome.
I read this over a couple of nights, its not a long book and is well supported with photographs and amazing colour plates, see examples below. About the only thing I'd expect to see here that is missing is a map or two. But that is reader's choice.
Easily recommended.
what is a book without words
Harrier being Harrier
Awesome
Awesomer
Amazing colour plates... 1
Detail of above
Amazing colour plates... 2. I like the Harrier in green.
A lot of history in two images.