Challenge; more Harriers.

[Riain]

Australia built a series of bare bases across the north from the late 80s to operate Hornets and F111s. With Harriers we could have saved ourselves the trouble by using the small strips which dot the area, with the added bonus of not providing a tempting target for lodgement.

The market for not particularly capable attack aircraft in the 70s and 80s is sizeable, the A4, F5, Mirage 5 sold well and planes such as the Hunter, Sabre and others stayed in service as attack aircraft after being displaced in the fighter role in many airforces.

 

[Just Leo]

Australia actually was in the market for Sea Harriers, but the sale of Invincible fell through due to something off South America. The potential of a converted deck ship also fell through. No decks-no Harriers. No worries....Hash House Harriers is still doing fine.

Although employment of naval Harriers could have expanded somewhat, land basing suffers from the inability to reach out and touch someone, unless they come to you. Canada and Australia need aircraft with long legs, not ones that can hide under a tree.

 

[TheMann]

So, the Brazilians essentially replace their OTL Skyhawks with Sea Harriers? Maybe the Sao Paulo will be able to handle a larger wing than IOTL? (I mean, it's about 50% larger than the Invincibles the British used) Certainly the Harriers will have an embarrassingly large amount of space, considering that the thing was designed for CATOBAR operations.

Yeah, pretty much. I was thinking that they serve well for a while, until Brazil bites the bullet and buys for-real fixed wing aircraft for the Sao Paulo, probably the Rafale. The Rafales would relegate their Sea Harriers to shore-based duties or to an amphibious assault ship, if Brazil buys one.

 

[Riain]

In 1971 Pakistan conducted a muddled, half-arsed version of Israel's 1967 airbase strike, which in the event achieved little. If it had done some significant damage it would have strongly reinforced the lesson of 1967, that capable aircraft are easily destroyed if they are caught on the ground. 2 harsh lessons within 4 years could do wonders for the Harrier concept.