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Comment by gerdesj | Hacker News Reader

"It's able to operate from airstrips that are no more than roads, with modest mobile ground equipment for support."

Nothing is really new. I used to live in West Germany in the '70s and '80s. The UK had an aircraft called Harrier - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_jump_jet. At that time I think Sweden was deploying the Drakken (Dragon) and later the Vigen (Lightning). I made models of both as a child and I think both of them were superb in their own way.

Harrier was designed to work out of fields, let alone roads. Rather similar to an Apache. Minimal maint (ish) and so on.

I now live in Yeovil, Somerset and we have recently had several Italian rotary wing aircraft, such as The Seaking doing test flights around here. Presumably airframe testing and proving for VJ Day.

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> I think Sweden was deploying the Drakken (Dragon) and later the Vigen (Lightning).

The names are much less flashy, Draken (The kite, due to the shape) and Viggen (The tufted duck) :P.

Yes, Draken and Viggen are officially named after the kite and the tufted duck, respectively.

The names do however carry the other meanings as well.

Draken means (the) kite, dragon and male duck.

Viggen means (the) lightning and tufted duck.

And Gripen is the Griffin. Before Draken was Tunnan, the Barrel.

Not sure if ever made a lot of sense to land harrier in an unprepared location though. Lots of risk of foreign object damage to the engines. And logistically more difficult for refueling/rearming. Much better to use it on short but prepared strips.

Or ships!

The USMC is set up to do that. There are seven Wasp-class amphibious assault ships. Each is a Marine ground-air task force in a can.[1] The concept is that the ships stand offshore and launch VTOL aircraft (F-35s and Harriers) from the top, and landing craft from the well deck.

This works great unless the onshore enemy has anti-ship missiles and drones.[2] Unlike fleet carriers, which can stand off from an enemy shore, amphibious assault ships have to operate in sight of shore, maybe a few kilometers, because their job is to launch boats. That's within small drone range.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp-class_amphibious_assault_...

[2] https://www.usmcu.edu/Outreach/Marine-Corps-University-Press...

The assault ships can be much farther offshore for air operations. The flight deck isn’t just for STOVL jets, it can also handle lots of helicopter and tiltrotor traffic, which is also used for ship-to-shore movement.

Also, anti ship missiles and drones aren’t a cheat code. They can be suppressed, jammed, destroyed with preparatory fires, or shot down in flight. Anti-ship missiles aren’t new, nor are anti-anti-ship-missile-missiles. Anti-ship missiles were a major factor in the 1982 Falklands War but not, in the end, a decisive one.

The Swedish idea is to pre-build wider stretches of highway around the country, and then later use those as needed. Not fields, but not 100% clear of debris either.

> The UK had an aircraft called Harrier - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrier_jump_jet …

Also, the French: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEPECAT_Jaguar which was designed to be useable from improvised runways, hence the extremely robust landing gear.

I remember the Jaguar - a very square aircraft in cross section (as I think of it) and it was a French/British collaboration.

It (Jag) wasn't really about mixing it in the hand to hand combat thing - it was a trainer and a few other things. I remember the landing gear being really long but not robust.

Which RAF bases are around there? I used to live at the end of the Filton airstrip and I came home one day to a Harrier hovering directly over my house. It moved off towards Filton, but I didn't see where it went. I didn't think about what RAF bases are in the West Country.

Westland-Augusta-Leonardo helicopter company in Yeovil.

RNAS (Royal Naval Air Station) Yeovilton in nearby Ilchester, which has also a fascinating museum of British naval aviation and an old Concorde.

[Fun fact - Yeovilton and Westlands are connected by an old Roman road: A37 Ilchester Road, Vagg Lane, Vagg Hill, Larkhill Road... ]

I have to imagine that Gripen is an order of magnitude cheaper to operate than the Harrier though

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