The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier family developed. It first entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980 as the Sea Harrier FRS1 and became informally known as the "Shar".Unusual in an era in which most naval and land-based air superiority fighters were large and supersonic, the principal role of the subsonic Sea Harrier was to provide air defense for Royal Navy task groups centred around the aircraft carriers.

The Sea Harrier served in the Falklands War and the Balkans conflicts; on all occasions it mainly operated from aircraft carriers positioned within the conflict zone. Its usage in the Falklands War was its most high profile and important success, when it was the only fixed-wing fighter available to protect the British Task Force. The Sea Harriers shot down 20 enemy aircraft during the conflict; 2 Sea Harriers were lost to enemy ground fire. They were also used to launch ground attacks in the same manner as the Harriers operated by the Royal Air Force.

The Sea Harrier was marketed for sales abroad, but India was the only other operator after attempts to sell the aircraft to Argentina and Australia were unsuccessful. A second, updated version for the Royal Navy was made in 1993 as the Sea Harrier FA2, improving its air-to-air abilities and weapons compatibilities, along with a more powerful engine; this version was manufactured until 1998. The aircraft was withdrawn from service early by the Royal Navy in 2006, but remained in service with the Indian Navy for a further decade until its retirement in 2016.

Pictured here is a 1:72 scale replica of a RAF British Aerospace Harrier GR. Mk. 7 jump jet flown by No.4 Squadron when it participated in "Operation Telic", the attack on Iraq, during spring 2003. Sold Out!

Dimensions:
Wingspan: 5-inches
Length: 7-3/4-inches

Release Date: September 2009

Historical Account: "Tell Everyone Leave is Cancelled" - Operation (or Op) TELIC is the code name under which all British operations of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq and after were being conducted. A total of 46,000 troops of all the British Services were committed to the operation at its start. At the peak of the campaign, some 26,000 British Army soldiers, 4,000 Royal Marines, 5,000 Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary sailors and 8,100 Royal Air Force airmen were in action. British Armed Forces combat operations in Iraq as part of TELIC officially ended on April 30, 2009, with British troops handing over control to the United States Military.

Operation TELIC is one of the largest deployments of British forces since WWII. It is only approached in size by the 1991 Operation GRANBY deployment for the Gulf War and the 1956 Operation Musketeer Suez Crisis deployment. It is considerably larger than the 1982 Operation Corporate in the Falklands War, which saw around 30,000 personnel deployed and the Korean War, which saw fewer than 20,000 personnel deployed.

Some 9,500 of the British servicemen and women who deployed on Operation TELIC for the invasion and its aftermath were reservists, the vast majority of them from the Territorial Army.

Notice that British forces were deploying to the region was given in three separate Commons statements by Geoff Hoon Secretary of State for Defence. On January 7th, the deployment of the naval forces was announced, along with the Royal Marines component. January 20th saw the land forces deployment announced and 6 February the air forces. They were ready in time for hostilities to start on March 19th. When compared with the deployment of forces prior to the Gulf War things proceeded a great deal faster, with the slowest deploying elements taking 10 weeks to get from base to combat readiness in the theatre.

The deployment used 64 British and foreign flagged merchant vessels.

TELIC means a purposeful or defined action, but unlike the United States who called their equivalent military deployment Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Ministry of Defence uses a computer to generate its names so that they carry no overtly political connotations. As initial planning took place over the Christmas 2002 period, personnel jokingly referred to TELIC as standing for Tell Everyone Leave Is Cancelled.