The modern legend of british aviation is of course the Harrier...even more so the Sea Harrier.

Known as the 'La Muerta Negra' or 'Black Death' to adversaries in the 1982 conflict, the sea harrier prooved that the harrier was not a quirky british invention but a conflict winning aircraft that had some bite... the bite was enhanced by the 'second generation' FA2.

Building mostly on operational experiance in the southern atlantic and in the Balklands and normal carrier operations, the FA2 was originally the FRS2... however the upgrade was primarily geared on the Fighter end of the stick.

Apart from the obvious avionics and Blue vixen radar, the upgrade allowed BVR missiles to be carried - the AIM-120 AMRAAM - improved Anti-ship and bombing, double AIM-9 rails, lengthened fusealarge increase range and a whole spectrum of other new shiney things to give the old warbird a boost.

The sea harrier is acturally the one-true 'last british fighter' and served right up till 2006 when it fell to the white knife of the white paper... though it was too costly to upgrade the engines to a high-hot enviroment and also considerable lack of ordinance capability compared to the Harier Gr7 then in service, it bowed out to the storeage facilities of RAF Shawberry...where they remain boxed up...
The RN now operates the Gr9 alongside the RAF as part of the effective 'JFH' - Joint Force Harrier.

Now the sole export and operator is India...their Navy operates a few Mk51's which are updated version of the old FRS1...the blue vixen radar being too advanced to be offered for export.... there they'll hang on till their new carrier and the revivied MiG-29K comes into force.

My Faveourite Harrier varient and Naval aircraft - F/A-18 second - is also got the markings of my fave naval squadron, the cleaved fist of 899 Squadron
1/72 Extrakit from Hannents, the sole injection moulded type kit currently on the market...needed the FRS1 kit to give it all the goodies and is severely lacking in a few details but it looks the part and looks good
Standard CAP loadout... two AMRAAM and the twin ADEN cannons... I consider the Sea Harrier the true last gunfighter ^^