Reader squodgy commented:
I know your interest in Gov incompetence. Get this, the UK dumped all its Harriers & parts to US for $1 because we couldn’t either afford, justify or find enough pilots for it.
Spain & Italy have the AV8B US Harrier. Both are committed to the exorbitent F-35 Lightning at $700m each, but it’s excessive costs are giving them diarrhea.
It’s operational envelope cannot match the Harrier, so now they are both drawing on Boeing & BAe to breathe another ten years into the old girl that first flew in 1960. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Siddeley_P.1127)
Talk about the bottomless pit of the Military Industrial Complex.http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/the-hiss-harrier-support-program-03369/