Sea Fury - Go to http://www.meiermotors.com/index.php
/projekte/hawker-seafury-d-cace/
hawker-seafury-restaurierung to see the marvellous job that Meier
Motors are doing in restoring red Sea Fury D-CACE. Make sure you see
all 6 pages. It was originally converted at Dunsfold in 1963.
Sea Harrier -
INS Viraat (HMS Hermes), which has completed a
service life of 56 years, was retired after getting a grand farewell at
the International Fleet Review at Visakhapatnam in February 2016. Sea
Harriers did much appreciated demonstrations including hovers close to
the beach.
The Sea Harriers, currently based at INS Hansa, Goa,
have been
carrying out regular flights along with Mig-29Ks but mounting
maintenance costs and the small fleet of only seven aircraft in service
means the Navy cannot keep them in the operational fleet for much
longer and they may well be retired with Viraat. The Ministry of
Defence will make the decision.
Under the Limited Upgrade Sea Harrier (LUSH)
programme some 15 aircraft were fitted with the Israeli Elta EL/M-2032
radar and Rafael Derby BVRAAM missiles (Beyond Visual Range Air to Air
Missiles). Since then the Navy has lost a number of aircraft and, due
to the lack of spares, some were cannibalised to keep the others
airworthy.
The Navy has ordered carrier-qualified Mig-29ks and
Hawk Mk 132 advanced jet trainers. The Migs will fly from the 14 deg
ski-jump equipped 45,400 ton carrier INS Vikramaditya, a Soviet Kiev
class ship launched in 1987 as the Baku, renamed Admiral Gorshkov in
the Russian navy in 1996, sold to India in 2004 and in-service in 2013.
Described as a STOBAR ship, Short Take-Off But Arrested Landing, the
Mig 29ks make hold-back ski jump take-offs and tail hook arrested
landings on the angled deck. INS Viraat was not capable of supporting
STOBAR operations. In 2018 a new indigenous 40,000 ton carrier, INS
Vikrant, is expected to enter service.
(Information via - thanks, Bob.)