British Aerospace started independent development of an advanced Harrier to succeed the GR3 during the late 1970s. This Harrier was referred to as the ‘tin wing’, because the wing was made of conventional alloy and did not incorporate much-lighter carbon fibre. By the early 1980s, the US became involved and a partnership between BAe and McDonnell Douglas allowed joint development of the aircraft. BAe abandoned its own GR5 and used the designation for a licence-built version of the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II. It shared the Harrier name, but under the skin was a very different aircraft, built with modern materials, including carbon composites.
The GR5 was an interim aircraft that took the RAF from the first-generation Harrier GR3 to the full day/night-attack second-generation GR7/9. This transition took more than ten years and is, to some extent, still continuing today.
First flown in April 1985, the Harrier GR5 was jointly manufactured by McDonnell Douglas and British Aerospace, with the final assembly of the RAF aircraft taking place in the UK. Although it was broadly similar to the US Marine Corps’s AV-8B, the GR5 differed in detail. It was powered by the Rolls-Royce Pegasus 11 (Mk 105) with a nominal thrust of 21,750lb, it had a Martin-Baker Mk 12H ejector seat and areas of the airframe were strengthened to resist bird impacts at low-level and high speed. The number of underwing pylons was increased from six to eight to allow two AIM-9L Sidewinders to be carried for self-protection. Whereas the AV-8B had a single Gatling-type gun, the GR5 had a pair of the then new Aden 25 cannon. In terms of avionics and other internal equipment there were several significant replacements to keep the GR5 in line with other RAF front-line types.
Initially, sixty Harrier GR5s were ordered for the RAF in 1985, to equip the OCU and No. 1 Squadron at Wittering and Nos 3 and 4 Squadrons in Germany. A further order for thirty-four ‘night-attack’ Harrier GR7s followed in 1988. As it happened, forty-one GR5s were built and the remaining nineteen were completed as GR5As, incorporating much of the wiring needed to upgrade the aircraft to GR7 standard. Nos 1 and 3 Squadrons became fully operational on the GR5 by April 1990, but No. 4 Squadron was equipped with the GR7 from the outset.
The Harrier GR7 is basically the equivalent of the US night-attack AV-8B, incorporating very similar equipment and avionics, and has the same over-nose bump housing the GEC Sensors FLIR. Under a contract awarded to BAe in November 1989, sixty-one GR5/5As were converted to GR7 standard and were delivered to the RAF alongside the new-build aircraft. Delivery to the RAF (the Strike Attack Operational Evaluation Unit at Boscombe Down) started in August 1990 and the lengthy process of development and conversion of the three operational squadrons to the extended day/night-attack role began.
The GR7 has a night-vision goggles (NVG) compatible cockpit, which allows use of Ferranti Night Owl NVGs. From the seventy-seventh production aircraft, the GR7 had the 100 per cent leading-edge root extension (LERX), which further delays the onset of wing rock and improves turn performance. Subsequently all of the GR7s have received the extended wing. Fitted with a TIALD (thermal-imaging airborne laser designator) pod, the GR7 can automatically launch laser-guided precision munitions. Provision of a dedicated Sidewinder air-to-air missile pylon allows adequate defence capability even when carrying a full weapons load.
RAF Harrier GR7s were successfully deployed for the first time on Operation Bolton monitoring the No-Fly Zone over southern Iraq, and as part of Operation Warden, protecting Kurdish settlements in northern Iraq following the First Gulf War. These operations required the Harriers to regain a reconnaissance capability, which had been lost when the last Harrier GR3s were withdrawn from service. In 1996, the Harrier fleet was assigned to the new NATO Rapid Reaction Force and increased in strength from twelve to sixteen aircraft (and sixteen to twenty pilots) per squadron. In 1997 the GR7 became operational on Royal Navy carriers, delivering strike capabilities alongside the RN Sea Harrier FA2s that provided fighter defence.
In 1990 the RAF ordered thirteen Harrier T10 two-seat trainers based on the TAV-8B airframe. It has full GR7 weapon-carrying capabilities, unlike its US counterpart, which only carries training armament. The five Harrier T4 two-seaters operated by the RN were upgraded to T8 standard in the mid-1990s.