XBradTC

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XBradTC

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Pic O’ The Day

When the Navy and Marines upgraded the radars of their legacy F/A-18 Hornets, they found themselves with a supply of still quite functional APG-65 radars. They also found themselves wanting to upgrade the night/all weather capabilities of the Marines AV-8B Harriers. In a common sense move that I didn’t know the Department of the Navy…

When the Navy and Marines upgraded the radars of their legacy F/A-18 Hornets, they found themselves with a supply of still quite functional APG-65 radars. They also found themselves wanting to upgrade the night/all weather capabilities of the Marines AV-8B Harriers. In a common sense move that I didn’t know the Department of the Navy had in them, they shoehorned the surplus radars into the existing Harrier fleet.

http://xbradtc.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/pdd2b212b252832529.jpg?w=300

Click to greatly embiggenfy.

The grey dot just above the radome is the sensor head of a forward looking infrared (FLIR) thermal imager.  From  a day only, visual dive bombing platform, to a night/all weather attack platform capable of delivering precision munitions, the Harrier has come a long way.

But they’re still not going to fit in the back of that Herk.

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  1. Jeff Gauch

    “But they’re still not going to fit in the back of that Herk.”

    Bullshit. If it doesn’t fit get a bigger hammer.

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  2. Paul L. Quandt

    Well, you can get it in alright, the problem being if you ever want it to fly again.

    Paul

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  3. Mark

    How would they fit in a C-17? That’s what I’m wondering now.

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  4. xbradtc

    Pretty well, I’d guess. After you unbolt the wings and the tail.

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  5. Jeff Gauch

    Here we go with the requirements creep…

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  6. xbradtc

    LOL

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  7. scottthebadger

    Earlier this year, I saw a photo of the fuselage of a Herk being loaded into a C-5. Take the wings and tail off the harrier, put the fuselage on a roller pallet, roll it into a C-130 fuselage, and roll that into a C-5. Aviation turducken!

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  8. ultimaratioregis

    A Harrier fit in a C-130? It is all a matter of relative speed.

    Of course, the tumbling to earth in a ball of twisted alloy and flaming JP-8 could be considered sub-optimal.

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