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Sea Harrier Rocket Pods


ChocolateCrisps

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Hey all,

I've been scouring the internet for pics of SHARs with rocket pods for a few days now, but so far I've drawn a blank. I know they must have used the RN 2" pods, and I know that the Kinetic kit has a set of Matra pods on a double pylon of some kind, but I can't find any shots of the actual fit on an actual aircraft! I'd appreciate it if anyone had any pics or at least knows a little more about the fit.

Thanks

Edited by ChocolateCrisps
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22 hours ago, ChocolateCrisps said:

Hey all,

I've been scouring the internet for pics of SHARs with rocket pods for a few days now, but so far I've drawn a blank. I know they must have used the RN 2" pods, and I know that the Kinetic kit has a set of Matra pods on a double pylon of some kind, but I can't find any shots of the actual fit on an actual aircraft! I'd appreciate it if anyone had any pics or at least knows a little more about the fit.

Thanks

Only on  FRS1, Not used on FA2 SHAR as far as I know.  Don't search for SNEB or Matra pod  as the 2" rockets were not SNEB  rockets, and the pods were not manufactured by Matra!

 

Selwyn

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16 minutes ago, Selwyn said:

Only on  FRS1, Not used on FA2 SHAR as far as I know.

I wasn't aware of that, so that narrows it down a little, thanks! As for searching, I've just been searching for "Sea Harrier Rocket pods", and I don't seem to be having much luck!

 

Even just knowing how many pods could be carried and where would be better than nothing, but while there seem to be plenty of sites which say the Sea Harrier could mount "Rocket Pods" (many of which do further misidentify them as the Matra 68mm ones), they don't give any useful detail, and in general there seems to be far less out there for rockets than for any of the other weapon fits.

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2 minutes ago, ChocolateCrisps said:

I wasn't aware of that, so that narrows it down a little, thanks! As for searching, I've just been searching for "Sea Harrier Rocket pods", and I don't seem to be having much luck!

 

Even just knowing how many pods could be carried and where would be better than nothing, but while there seem to be plenty of sites which say the Sea Harrier could mount "Rocket Pods" (many of which do further misidentify them as the Matra 68mm ones), they don't give any useful detail, and in general there seems to be far less out there for rockets than for any of the other weapon fits.

Usual fit was one on each outer wing pylon with inner wing tanks. Four could be carried one on each wing pylon  but this was rare. The 2" pod was used by the RAF GR3 in the Falklands quite a famous picture is the GR3 crashed on Sid's strip. The RAF did not use SNEB/Matra in the Falklands.  easy way to differentiate the rocket pods is that the SNEB pod has two rows of holes on the nose, the 2" No7 pod has 3 rows! Forget using the kinetic pods as they show the rockets hanging out of the nose cone. They used a picture of a trade stand display pod to design their moulds, and made a right mess of them.

Selwyn

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Thanks Selwyn, that's just the kind of info I was after! I'd seen the crashed RAF GR3 pic before; the problem is that that seems to be the only photo of a Harrier with the 2" pods on the internet (that I can find, at least), despite them being Royal Navy weapons!

Edited by ChocolateCrisps
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You have to go back to the envisaged role for the Sea Harrier.  During the Cold war it was initially intended to knock down Soviet shadowers or missile carrying aircraft, so up to the Falklands they are usually seen with tanks on the inner pylons and AIM-9G Sidewinders on the outer ones.  They might well have been plumbed for 2" rocket pods on the outer pylons but I don't recall ever reading of Sea Harriers carrying them in the early stages of the Falklands conflict, only bombs.  Once the RAF Harriers arrived in theatre, the Sea Harriers left them to get on with the ground attack role and reverted to air defence (ie each aircraft type doing what it was best at).  It is my impression that both the Matra and 2" rocket pods fell out of UK use not long after the Falklands.  I'm not saying you won't find a photo of a Sea Harrier with 2" rocket pods but I hope I've explained why you won't find many.

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On 16/03/2021 at 17:26, Seahawk said:

I'm not saying you won't find a photo of a Sea Harrier with 2" rocket pods but I hope I've explained why you won't find many.

I have to be honest, I was sort of working on the basis that as they clearly still owned the things they might have at least used them occasionally! :laugh:

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800 NAS FRS.1s used them during Ex Arctic Express off the Norwegian coast in early 1983, flying from HMS Hermes.

 

I cannot recall them being carried in any photos of FA2s.

Happy to be proved wrong on that!

 

Cheers

 

Nick

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Try YouTube, I'm sure there's at least one sequence of an FRS.1 firing rockets. A BAe publicity brochure shows weapons carriage and location for the FRS.1 as 1x rocket pod on each outer pylon or 2x pods on twin carriers on each inner pylon.

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  • 2 months later...
On 3/18/2021 at 7:02 PM, NG899 said:

800 NAS FRS.1s used them during Ex Arctic Express off the Norwegian coast in early 1983, flying from HMS Hermes.

 

I cannot recall them being carried in any photos of FA2s.

Happy to be proved wrong on that!

 

Cheers

 

Nick

Definitely not on FA2 not in the RTS ...to be honest never even seen them mentioned on FRS1 certainly dont recall seeing in the topic 1 or 5NQ .Possibly a trial thing that went out of fashion quickly

Edited by junglierating
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