{"id":53692,"date":"2023-11-05T21:46:03","date_gmt":"2023-11-05T20:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=53692"},"modified":"2024-11-05T00:07:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-04T23:07:15","slug":"the-flight-of-harrier-ii-fighters-of-the-spanish-navy-with-its-long-awaited-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/11\/05\/the-flight-of-harrier-ii-fighters-of-the-spanish-navy-with-its-long-awaited-replacement\/","title":{"rendered":"The flight of Harrier II fighters of the Spanish Navy with its long-awaited replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The participation of the Harrier II fighters of the Spanish Navy in the NATO Neptune Strike exercise is leaving interesting images.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/10\/31\/the-commander-of-the-aircraft-flotilla-of-the-spanish-navy-speaks-clearly-about-the-f-35\/\">The Commander of the Aircraft Flotilla of the Spanish Navy speaks clearly about the F-35<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/11\/03\/the-curious-operation-to-disassembly-the-wing-of-a-harrier-ii-fighter-of-the-spanish-navy\/\">The curious operation to disassembly the wing of a Harrier II fighter of the Spanish Navy<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>We already saw here two days ago <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/11\/03\/the-curious-operation-to-disassembly-the-wing-of-a-harrier-ii-fighter-of-the-spanish-navy\/\">the disassembly of the wing of a Spanish Harrier II<\/a> aboard the aircraft carrier \"Juan Carlos I\". In the last few hours, <strong>some official channels of the Atlantic Alliance have broadcast more images.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53311713906_918f5fdf21_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On November 1, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/STRIKFORNATO\/status\/1719729528837194178\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">STRIKFORNATO published this photo of a Spanish Harrier II<\/a>. We see <strong>two members of the Embarked Air Unit (UNAEMB)<\/strong> with red vests that identify them as those in charge of weapons and ammunition, loading a bomb (apparently a Mk.82) on one of the supports on the wing. port.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53312073974_5126aa951b_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Another photo of a Harrier II<\/strong>, also published by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/STRIKFORNATO\/status\/1719729528837194178\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">STRIKFORNATO<\/a>. It is surely the same plane (VA.1B-25\/01-914) in the previous photo, since we see the bomb loaded in the same support on the port wing.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53312188150_d512aa1db2_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/STRIKFORNATO\/status\/1719729528837194178\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">STRIKFORNATO<\/a> also published this beautiful photo on November 1, showing <strong>two Spanish Harrier IIs in flight over the sea<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53312188195_83a13f147e_o.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That same day, another Atlantic Alliance account, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JFC_Naples\/status\/1719750781128016116\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NATO JFC Naples<\/a>, posted This photo of <strong>two Spanish Harrier IIs flying in formation next to an F-4E Phantom II<\/strong>, apparently Greek (the photo is of very poor quality and their insignia cannot be distinguished) also during the Neptune Strike exercise. <strong>No one should be alarmed: with the title of this article I was not referring to this formation<\/strong>, of course (it would be shameful to replace the already old Harrier IIs with even older Phantom IIs).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53312188135_2b48152021_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Now comes the most interesting part. Yesterday <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/STRIKFORNATO\/status\/1720760652296294625\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">STRIKFORNATO<\/a> published the two photos that you can see next to this paragraph. In the first, above these lines, we see <strong>a wedge formation of five fighters flying over the Italian aircraft carrier \"Cavour\" C-550<\/strong>. In this photo it is not clear what type of fighters they are. The following reveals it.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53311713966_29c7bebb55_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>In this image we see an F-35B<\/strong> of the Gruppo Aeromobili Imbarcati (GRUPAER) of the Italian Navy accompanied by <strong>two Italian Harrier IIs<\/strong>. The photo is taken from another fighter flying to the left of the F-35B.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53311713961_23e1441e21_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Today <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/STRIKFORNATO\/status\/1721188872770453561\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">STRIKFORNATO<\/a> has published an overhead photo of this fighter formation. We see <strong>the Italian F-35B leading the wedge formation, accompanied by four Harrier IIs<\/strong>. The two Harriers flying on the starboard side are Italian (they can be recognized by their cockades and the gray color with which their noses are painted). <strong>The two Harriers flying on the port side (on the right in the photo) are Spanish<\/strong>, from the 9th Squadron. Below these lines you can see an enlargement of the photo.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53312073959_d5bb5b5b97_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As we already saw here on October 31, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/10\/31\/the-commander-of-the-aircraft-flotilla-of-the-spanish-navy-speaks-clearly-about-the-f-35\/\">The Spanish Navy is interested in getting the F-35B to replace its Harrier II<\/a>. It has been suggested for three years, with no confirmation of the purchase by the government until now. <strong>Time passes and the Spanish Harriers see the end of their operational life approaching<\/strong>, with possibly no time for their replacements to arrive. Meanwhile, Italy, with a more forward-looking government, already has its F-35Bs active in both its Navy and its Air Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The participation of the Harrier II fighters of the Spanish Navy in the NATO Neptune Strike exercise is leaving interesting images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19536,11545],"tags":[2245,20498,11229,17502,18633,7072,1112,1111,3542,10669],"class_list":["post-53692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-we-said-yesterday","category-navy","tag-9-escuadrilla","tag-aircraft-carrier-cavour-c-550","tag-aircraft-carrier-juan-carlos-i-l61","tag-hellenic-air-force","tag-italian-navy","tag-lockheed-martin-f-35-lightning-ii","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-av-8b-harrier-ii","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-eav-8b-harrier-ii","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-f-4-phantom-ii","tag-spanish-navy"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 04:58:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53692\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}