Harry.R Posted May 23, 2021 Posted May 23, 2021 (edited) 15 hours ago, Gunnar81 said: You may want to check into the AV8B Day attack versions performance in Desert Storm. It actually had kick ass ground attack capability, there are several books on the topic in fact. You're correct, what I meant to say was no real night ground attack capability.... you'd think that I'd know better after working on them Edited May 23, 2021 by Harry.R
Gunnar81 Posted May 23, 2021 Posted May 23, 2021 2 hours ago, Harry.R said: You're correct, what I meant to say was no real night ground attack capability.... you'd think that I'd know better after working on them Ahh gotcha. Damn internet, a person makes one slight in a sentence and someone is on them . That's cool you worked on them tho, couldn't ask for a better bird in my opinion. 1
Thanatos31 Posted May 25, 2021 Posted May 25, 2021 On 5/19/2021 at 10:32 PM, Harry.R said: The Day version was the first version of AV8B, it had no real edit NIGHT /edit ground attack capability, then in 1991 the Night Attack version arrived with modifications that added the FLIR, wide angle HUD and NVG, and later the + upgrade which added a radar, to allow the AV8B+ to perform air to air tasks. So pre-1991 you'd see AV8B, post 1991 to the advent of the + you'd see a mix of Av8B and AV8B N/A. Now you might see AV8B+ and maybe N/A. From N/A onwards the USMC aircraft were generally painted in light two tone grey, and later - dark grey. thank you for the indepth reply ! So basically - the dark grey version is the most recent paint job ; but you'll still see the lightgrey/darkgrey versions around (?) Come fly with us : https://discord.gg/tawdcs TAW CJTF 13 - EU TZ MilSim Squadron Ryzen 5 5600X | 32GB DDR4 3733| ASUS Radeon RX 6700 XT | ASrock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 | HP Reverb G2 | Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle , F16 & F18 grips , TFRP Rudders | Win 10
Harry.R Posted May 27, 2021 Posted May 27, 2021 (edited) On 5/25/2021 at 9:30 AM, Thanatos31 said: thank you for the indepth reply ! So basically - the dark grey version is the most recent paint job ; but you'll still see the lightgrey/darkgrey versions around (?) NP. The dark grey overall with lighter grey underside is the current paint job, not sure if the lighter grey scheme still exists. On 5/23/2021 at 10:31 PM, Gunnar81 said: Ahh gotcha. Damn internet, a person makes one slight in a sentence and someone is on them . That's cool you worked on them tho, couldn't ask for a better bird in my opinion. Agreed, they were a very exciting jet to work with and the Squadron groundcrew and pilots were some of the best. Edited May 27, 2021 by Harry.R 1
Nealius Posted August 9, 2021 Posted August 9, 2021 The dark gray vs. light gray scheme got me really curious as well, so I perused pics on Seaforces.org to see if I could figure out a rough timeline. In general it looks like the dark gray scheme started around 2010 or 2011. Each squadron still had a couple light gray jets even well after. VMA-211: light gray mixed through 2016 VMA-214: light gray mixed through 2018 VMA-223: light gray possibly mixed through 2012 VMA-231: light gray mixed through 2012 VMA-311: light gray mixed through 2016 VMA-542: light gray mixed through 2012 I can't find many post-2017 pics to get a better idea of 2018-2021 timeframe. 1
Thanatos31 Posted August 11, 2021 Posted August 11, 2021 thanks @Nealius Come fly with us : https://discord.gg/tawdcs TAW CJTF 13 - EU TZ MilSim Squadron Ryzen 5 5600X | 32GB DDR4 3733| ASUS Radeon RX 6700 XT | ASrock B550 Phantom Gaming 4 | HP Reverb G2 | Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle , F16 & F18 grips , TFRP Rudders | Win 10
DmitriKozlowsky Posted February 1, 2022 Posted February 1, 2022 On 1/25/2020 at 1:52 PM, BEHill75 said: Not livery per se, but you could correct the name of one of the liveries. VMA-542 (please correct from VMAT) is NOT a training squadron. I deployed with them in 2007 to Kandahar, Afghanistan with the 24th MEU. The only Harrier training squadron in the Marine Corps is VMAT-203. Was the only Harrier II training squadron! Marine Corps stood down VMAT-203 and retired its colors October 29,2021. Marine plans to fly AV-8B Plus until 2029, and update it, but it seems that conversion training will be at squadron level, and be in Marine Corps Reserves. USMC is moving on with F-35B and F-35C. How Navy and DOD forced Marines to take F-35C is unclear. But it seems that Navy wants some Marine squadrons equipped with F-35C and be afloat on big deck carriers. Marines are still getting three new Gator Navy America class LHA, that can embark entire F-35B squadron, instead of just 6 ship detachment as with current Tarawa class and first flight America LHA's. Still it is on my wishlist for RAZBAM to update AV-8B to Plus and have JHMQS and AIM-9X. That would give us AIM-120C, and AIM-9X (Block II?). Which would complete US kit HarrierII. If RAZBAM is really really nice, they would give us latest, now retired, Joint Force Harrier GR.9 with Sniper TPOD and Brimstone anti-armor missile. What boggles my mind is that Marines spent a lot of money to kit up their MC-130K with turret sensor on nose and Hellfire K missiles for COIN work in AfPak, but neglected or opted not to give Hellfire K ability to HarrierII.
exhausted Posted February 14, 2022 Posted February 14, 2022 On 5/27/2021 at 3:28 PM, Harry.R said: Agreed, they were a very exciting jet to work with and the Squadron groundcrew and pilots were some of the best. MALS-13 in Yuma, myself... I level but entirely connected to the bird. Curled into many an intake for a blend, lol. Always gonna be connected to this bird myself. 1
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