Bad news from Italy for the future of the Spanish Navy's Harrier IIs

It is already known that the Spanish Navy is going to be left without fixed-wing aircraft, as it has no replacement for its Harrier II Plus fighters.

An official magazine of the Ministry of Defense: “Spain will be left without embarked fixed-wing”
Those responsible for the Spanish Navy losing its carrier-based fighters

It was somewhat predictable. Spain is the only Harrier II operator that has not wanted to buy the F-35B, despite there being no other option on the market with the STOVL (short takeoff and vertical landing) capabilities of the current fighters of the 9th Squadron of the Air Fleet (FLOAN). The refusal of Pedro Sánchez's government to purchase the F-35B fighter, for clearly political reasons (due to his cabinet's hostility towards the United States while strengthening ties with the Chinese communist dictatorship), has led to a surreal situation in which the Spanish Navy awaits the arrival of a possible naval FCAS, which will not arrive, at the earliest, until 2040.

It's a terrible prospect for the Spanish Navy. Keep in mind that the Spanish Harrier IIs were scheduled for retirement in 2030, as the FLOAN commander warned two years ago. The date is not coincidental: in April 2024, the US Department of Defense indicated that the maintenance contract for the Spanish Harrier IIs would end in December 2028. From that point on, Spain will have to find its own way to obtain spare parts for these aircraft. Let's remember that the Spanish Harrier IIs were delivered between 1987 and 1988, except for the current two-seater TAV-8B, a second-hand aircraft delivered in 2021 that previously flew with the US Marines. Therefore, in 2028 these aircraft will already be 40 years old.

Given the government's refusal to purchase the F-35B, it was revealed in September that the Spanish Navy hopes to keep its Harrier IIs operational until 2032, with the help of Airbus and by purchasing retired fighter jets from the US and Italy to "cannibalize" them —the practice in the aeronautical field of using parts from retired aircraft to keep others operational. This plan aims to shorten the period the Navy will be without fixed-wing aircraft. However, this week that timeline received a major setback from Italy.

This week, the International Fighter Conference (IFC), an annual event on combat aviation, was held in Rome, bringing together important military commanders from Italy and other allied countries (significantly, there were none from Spain). This morning, British journalist Gareth Jennings, aviation editor at the prestigious Jane's Information Group, commented that at the IFC, an official indicated that the Italian Navy "may have to bring retirement forward from 2030 to maybe 2028 as support becomes 'too challenging'" due to the US Marine Corps' retirement of the Harrier IIs in June 2026.

British journalist has added a mention of the third Harrier II operator: "As an aside, time ticking for Spain to save its manned fixed-wing combat aviation.". Reading this, I couldn't help but recall these words of Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker in "Return of the Jedi": "It's too late for me, my son."

Of course, the FLOAN has an excellent maintenance staff that has already demonstrated its ability to work wonders with old aircraft, as it successively demonstrated with the SH-3D Sea King helicopters (more than 50 years in service), Hughes 500 Cayuse helicopters (50 years) and AB-212 "Gato" (50 years) helicopters. Some of these have been transferred to the Spanish Army, where they still serve in the Canary Islands. But a Harrier II is not a helicopter. These fighters are difficult to maintain due to their STOVL technology, and this maintenance will become increasingly complicated as spare parts become scarce.

Our Mediterranean neighbors have it easier. Italy still has 15 operational Harrier IIs (14 single-seat AV-8B+s and one two-seat TAV-8B), but already has 8 F-35Bs in service out of the 20 that the Italian Navy expects to eventually operate, following the recent announcement by Giorgia Meloni's government of the purchase of an additional 25 F-35s for its Armed Forces. Italy already has two aircraft carriers capable of operating the F-35B, the "Cavour" and the "Trieste" (which we discussed here yesterday). This is the difference between a country that has planned the replacement of its carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft well in advance and a country that resigns itself to losing that capability for political reasons.

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Main photo: Armada Española.