Today, the U.S. Marine Corps celebrated the end of more than half a century of Harrier ‘jump jet’ operations with a sundown ceremony at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina. For more than 20 percent of the history of the republic, the British-originated jump jet helped to defend America. The story of how the U.S. military first got involved in the program is a little-known but fascinating one. Michael Pryce, who has worked on various aircraft projects, from the Harrier to the Tempest, explains, and, in the process, connects the dots between the AV-8 and its replacement with the Marine Corps, the F-35B Lightning II.

Read our coverage of the Marine Harrier sundown here.

Right from the start, the Harrier had been of immense interest to Britain’s ‘cousins’ across the pond. In the 1950s, the threat of nuclear war led to the creation of jump jets, and NASA, plus the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Army soon found that developing rockets seemed easy in comparison to this new class of combat aircraft.

Despite valiant efforts, no American jump jet could be made to work.

A video shows the Ryan X-13 Vertijet during tests. It was one of many Cold War-era jump jet projects that ended in failure:

All three services got involved in trials of the Hawker Siddeley P.1127 Kestrel, the first iteration of what would become the Harrier, initially in a joint British-American-West German trials squadron. Then, six of the Kestrels were taken to America to continue testing there, and they were renamed as XV-6As once on U.S. soil. Unlike other jump jet projects, the P.1127 utilized four adjustable exhaust nozzles beneath the wing, which rotated to provide thrust for vertical, backward, or hovering flight as well as conventional forward movement.

The thing that impressed the Americans was the sheer simplicity of the British jump jet. With just one engine, and ‘not an electron’ needed in its flight controls, the Kestrel soon transformed into the Harrier, and in 1968 the U.S. Marine Corps decided they would acquire them. Despite not having flown any of the Kestrel trials, they knew they wanted to bring the jump jet into the front line as soon as possible.

The British makers of the Harrier, Hawker Siddeley, first found out about the U.S. Marines’ interest when two men in uniform walked into the Hawker Siddeley hospitality chalet at the 1968 Farnborough Airshow and said they wished to fly the jet. Within two weeks, they had. It was the start of the Marines’ love affair with the Harrier, but it was not America’s first encounter with the British jet.

Over 10 years before, another American had walked into Hawker’s fancy tent at another Farnborough airshow and asked to see their design for what would become the Harrier. Col. Willis “Bill” F. Chapman of the U.S. Air Force was an American in Paris, there to find European weapons that America could fund. Jump jets were all the rage, and the Hawker P.1127 seemed to him to be the most promising.

As leader of the 340th Bomb Group in Italy in World War II, Chapman had seen dozens of his B-25 bombers wiped out, first by a volcanic eruption and then by a Luftwaffe attack. He knew nuclear missiles could do much worse. Soon, he had funded the Pegasus engine, the heart of the Harrier, and struck up a strong friendship with the Hawker design team led by Ralph Hooper, driving their design forward, from the drawing board into the sky.

In 1968, one of the U.S. Marines who walked in at Farnborough would play an equally vital role in getting the Harrier into Marine service. Col. Tom Miller had flown in Korea and Vietnam, and scored a speed record in a McDonnell F4H Phantom for good measure. Deeply impressed by the Harrier, he went into battle on ‘The Hill’ to secure it for the Corps, then on to lead it into service as the commander of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Cherry Point — the same unit that retired the Harrier today, 55 years later.

The rest of the history of the Harrier is well known. From the initial, British-built AV-8A to the jointly-developed, with mostly American technology, second-generation AV-8B Harrier II, the Harrier found more use, and created more jobs, in America than in Britain. The American connection was the making of the British jump jet, and helped cement relations between the two countries’ pilots, engineers and ground crews over decades.

In the 1980s, there were attempts to make a new, supersonic successor, with the speed of the Marines’ F/A-18A Hornet and the vertical flight ability of the Harrier. Once again, the Americans turned to British designers. In 1981, Hooper and a team of engineers from the Harrier factory at Kingston-upon-Thames went to work at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri, to design the ultimate jump jet. Over drawing boards and at tailgate parties after ball games, they evolved a great beast of a jet, the P.1218, with two crew, two engines and the latest tech, to succeed the U.S. Navy’s F-14A Tomcat fleet interceptor and A-6E Intruder all-weather strike aircraft. Despite arriving at a joint design, money was limited, and the work was re-focused on research with NASA — the start of what in time would become the Joint Strike Fighter program.

Although the U.S Navy buys jets for the Marines, the big twin-engined design was of less interest to the Corps than another of Hooper’s designs, a smaller, single-engine jet that weighed the same as the Hornet. This supersonic jump jet was seriously studied in the United Kingdom, with tests and design work over many years. The U.S. Marines were involved too, officers visiting the Kingston factory to talk about its prospects. When Britain delayed jump jet plans in favor of what became the Eurofighter Typhoon, it meant Hooper’s single-engined P.1216 design, with its wild-looking twin-boom configuration, seemed to miss its chance with the Marines. The British designer retired too, but he did not let that stop him.

Keen to see a supersonic jump jet in Marine service, he turned to Miller once again. As the accompanying letter in this article shows, in 1992 he gave Miller the technical plans of the new jump jet, and Miller showed it around at Marine HQ at a vital time — just as 10 years of research was turning into the serious acquisition program for the Joint Strike Fighter.

The emerging requirements specified a weight the same as the Hornet — the same, too, as Hooper’s P.1216. Speed, range and weapons load were close too. While avionics and stealth had advanced beyond the British jet’s capabilities, the knowledge that the man who made the Harrier thought a practical jump jet of Hornet size would work helped get the ball rolling on the third generation of jump jets. Miller’s support ensured the Corps got behind it, leading to the Lockheed Martin F-35B now taking over Cherry Point.

Making a fighting jump jet that works is extremely challenging. The Harrier had its problems — without rigid training, accident rates echoed those of its 1950s origins. The F-35B has had to overcome its own hurdles too.

In the early 2000s, Hooper was called in to help fix those. The transatlantic story of the Harrier may have ended today, but the people who found ways to cut bureaucratic corners by trusting each other, and who cracked the technical code of making the Harrier work, continue to support the next generation of F-35Bs.

The ‘Harrier Mafia’ worked their own way, but always in line with the motto of the Marine Corps. “Semper Fi” was a value shared by British pilots who flew American Harriers in combat operations on exchange as much as by the men and women who made, and supported, 55 years of Harrier operations at Cherry Point.

Jump Jet: The Secret History of the Harrier by Michael Pryce is published on August 27 and is available for pre-order.

Contact the editor: thomas@thewarzone.com

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The unmistakable howl of the AV-8B Harrier II has been a soundtrack to U.S. Marine Corps aviation for more than four decades. From the deserts of the Middle East and Afghanistan to the decks of amphibious assault ships at sea, the aircraft’s ability to take off from short runways, operate from austere forward bases, and land vertically made it one of the most distinctive combat aircraft ever to wear American markings. Before then, its predecessor, the first-generation AV-8A Harrier, had pioneered the ‘jump jet’ in U.S. service, after entering Marine Corps service in 1971.

Now, that illustrious era has come to an end.

In a ceremony today, the Marine Corps said its official farewell to the AV-8B when its final operational Harrier II squadron, Marine Attack Squadron 223 (VMA-223), known as the “Bulldogs,” marked the retirement of the aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina.

The event closes a remarkable chapter in Marine aviation history. The Harrier’s departure marks more than the retirement of an aircraft; it represents the conclusion of a concept that shaped Marine air power for generations and helped define the Corps’ expeditionary character.

The Harrier was more than just another attack jet. It was the embodiment of the Marine Corps’ longstanding determination to bring airpower wherever Marines fought, regardless of whether a conventional airfield existed.

The Harrier’s story began long before the AV-8 entered U.S. military service. Derived from the British Hawker Siddeley Harrier jump jet, the aircraft was built around a revolutionary concept: vertical and short takeoff and landing, or V/STOL. Using swiveling engine nozzles, the aircraft could launch from improvised sites, roads, damaged airfields, and the decks of even relatively small ships. During the Cold War, when planners feared that traditional runways would be among the first targets destroyed in a major conflict, the concept had obvious appeal, but it was only the Harrier that saw real success as a V/STOL combat jet.

The Marine Corps embraced the idea early on. While the first-generation AV-8A proved the concept, the AV-8B Harrier II transformed it into a truly capable battlefield strike aircraft. The AV-8B featured a larger composite wing, improved performance, greater payload capacity, and significantly enhanced avionics. Later upgrades introduced night-attack capabilities and radar-equipped AV-8B Plus variants, keeping the aircraft relevant well into the 21st century. In recent years, all the Marine single-seaters still in service were ‘radar birds’ equipped with the AN/APG-65 radar that was ported over second-hand from F/A-18A/B Hornets and which conferred a significant air-to-air capability.

What made the Harrier exceptional was not simply its ability to hover. Its real value lay in its flexibility. Marine commanders could position Harriers close to frontline forces, reducing response times and increasing the effectiveness of close air support missions. The aircraft became a natural fit for Marine Expeditionary Units operating from amphibious assault ships, where its unique capabilities allowed fixed-wing tactical aviation to accompany Marines far from traditional airfields or aircraft carriers.

The Harrier quickly earned its combat credentials.

During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Marine Harriers flew thousands of sorties in support of coalition ground forces. The aircraft demonstrated its ability to sustain a high operational tempo while flying in demanding conditions. In the decades that followed, Harriers participated in virtually every major Marine Corps combat operation, including missions over the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and against ISIS.

The post-9/11 period of relentless operations arguably became the Harrier’s defining period. The AV-8B was a natural fit for counterinsurgency warfare. Equipped with advanced targeting pods and precision-guided munitions, Marine Harriers became a common sight over Iraq and Afghanistan, where their ability to remain close to ground forces made them particularly valuable.

Yet, even as the Harrier continued proving its worth in combat, its future was becoming increasingly uncertain.

The aircraft’s age, maintenance demands, and limited growth potential eventually caught up with it. The jet was also notably demanding on its pilots, requiring a unique training syllabus to operate safely and efficiently.

Looking toward the demands of future potential conflicts against sophisticated adversaries, Marine aviation planners concluded that its next jump jet would require stealth, advanced sensors, networked warfare capabilities, and greater overall survivability than a fourth-generation attack aircraft could provide.

The answer was the F-35B Lightning II.

Like the Harrier, the F-35B possesses short takeoff and vertical landing capability. Unlike the Harrier, however, it combines that flexibility with stealth technology, sensor fusion, powerful electronic warfare systems, and the ability to operate as an intelligence-gathering node across the battlespace. For Marine aviation leaders, the F-35B offered a path to preserve the expeditionary advantages pioneered by the Harrier while dramatically expanding combat capability. You can read more about the changes the F-35B is bringing to Marine Corps tactical aviation here and here, as well as on-scene reporting of its operations from an improvised forward arming and refueling point, here.

Notably, however, the service is also procuring F-35C versions that can operate from big-deck aircraft carriers, as well as land bases.

One by one, Marine Harrier squadrons began converting to the F-35B. Aircraft were retired, maintainers retrained, and pilots transitioned to the new platform. The process accelerated as the Marine Corps pursued broader modernization efforts focused on preparing for future conflicts, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region.

The signs of the Harrier’s approaching retirement became increasingly visible. In 2024, the final two Marine pilots completed AV-8B qualification training, becoming the last aviators ever designated as Harrier pilots by the Corps. Their graduation marked the beginning of the end for the ‘Flying Leatherneck’ Harrier community.

The final operational chapter belonged to VMA-223, which carried the Harrier banner to the very end. Their deployment aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7) represented the last operational deployment of Marine Corps Harriers.

As part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG), the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and its Harriers were part of Operation Southern Spear, the U.S. strikes on boats suspected of carrying illicit narcotics in the Caribbean. The Iwo Jima ARG was also in the region for the U.S. operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, earlier this year.

When the squadron completed its mission and the final aircraft returned home, the countdown to retirement entered its final phase.

For the Marines who flew and maintained the aircraft, the retirement is bittersweet.

The Harrier demanded respect. Its unique flight characteristics and vertical landing operations required exceptional skill from pilots. Maintainers often worked tirelessly to keep aging aircraft mission-ready. Yet those challenges helped create a close-knit community built around a platform unlike any other in American service.

In proving that fixed-wing tactical aviation can operate from challenging locales, the Marine Harrier continued a concept of operations that the service had pioneered in the Pacific in World War II. It gave Marine commanders unprecedented flexibility and reinforced the Corps’ expeditionary identity. Long before concepts such as distributed operations and expeditionary advanced bases became buzzwords, the Harrier proved that combat aircraft could operate from unconventional locations and support dispersed forces.

As the Harrier’s designated successor, it is fitting that the F-35B preserves the ability to operate from amphibious ships and austere locations while adding capabilities unimaginable when the AV-8B first entered service.

Still, there will never be another aircraft quite like the AV-8B, especially as far as charisma is concerned, and the type was a firm airshow favourite.

As the final Marine Corps Harriers make their last flights, they leave behind an enduring influence on Marine aviation doctrine and expeditionary warfare. While the United Kingdom gave up its Harrier IIs in a rushed retirement that you can read more about here, the AV-8B remains in frontline service in smaller numbers with Italy and Spain. It remains to be seen if a customer for former Marine Corps Harriers will come forward, but these aircraft remain capable and offer unique capabilities, something we have addressed in the past.

The Marine Corps jump jet era is over. But the impact of the Harrier, and the men and women who flew and maintained it, will continue to shape Marine aviation for years to come.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

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