[cestsennY]

By Adam Luck: 23:16 GMT, 2 June 2012

They were once the pride of Britain’s RAF and Royal Navy – but now these stripped-down Harrier vertical take-off jump
jets sit like skeletons in the famous US aircraft ‘Boneyard’ in the Arizona desert.

The once iconic aircraft – whose original versions first saw active service more than 40 years ago – are among some of
the 72 Harriers that Britain prematurely scrapped and then sold to America for a knockdown £116 million last November.

They are now used for spare parts for US Harriers, which America still consider viable fighting planes.



Despite being the world’s only successful combat-tested jump jets – and at one time considered ideal for the Navy’s two
new £6.2 billion aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales – the Harriers were decommissioned two
years ago as part of the Coalition’s defence cuts.

They are due to be replaced towards the end of the decade by the US’s F-35B jump jet, which experts believe will cost as
much as £200 million each – about 75 per cent more per plane than the Americans paid for Britain’s entire Harrier fleet.

The US-made jets will not be available until 2018 at the earliest – leaving Britain with two new super-carriers but no planes
to fly from them.



A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said last night: ‘Savings had to be made to tackle the multi-billion-pound black hole inherited
from the last Government. The difficult but necessary decision to retire Harrier early and sell the aircraft will save the Government
around £1 billion.