When Argentina invaded the
Falkland Islands in April 1982 Britain responded with a massive naval taskforce
including two aircraft carriers, the elderly HMS Illustrious (the ex USS Shangri
La) with her 16 Sea Jaguars and 10 Buccaneers, and the brand new HMS Invincible
with her Sea Harriers. This Sea Jaguar from 806 NAS is armed for
a SEAD strike on Argentine radar installations around Port Stanley. It carries 2
AGM-45 Shrike ARMs, 2 AIM-9L Sidewinders, an AN/ALQ-101 ECM pod, and a single
Matra rocket pod for 'targets of opportunity'.
This particular aircraft carries a single kill marking representing an Argentine
Mirage shot down with an AIM-9L over Falkland Sound on May 09.
Though the terrible weather in the South Atlantic winter kept the RN's CTOL
aircraft out of operations on many days, the 12 Sea Harriers aboard HMS
Invincible would have been hard pressed to win the war without Illustrious' Sea
Jaguars and Buccaneers.
The mods
to turn a Jaguar GR.1 into a Sea Jag FRS.1 weren't that extensive,
and were based on information on the actual proposed Jaguar M which was
cancelled in favor of the Super Etendard.
1. New
nosegear made from the kit gear leg mated to the lower gear leg of an A-7
using steel tube as the oleo. The wheels are the main wheels from an
ancient Hasegawa T-38.
2. Main gear-the kit gear legs were modified by cutting off the trailing
link sections and turning the gear legs around. The main gear wheels are
from an A-7.
3. Arrestor hook-the thin center section of the kit hook was replaced with
styrene rod. The attache point and hook are from the kit.
4. Radome-biggest mod-is the French nose from a Hasegawa Jaguar kit
with the laser designator removed and grafted back on further back on the
nose as a LRMTS. The resulting radome was sanded to shape with virtually
no filler.
Nick
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