Hawker Siddeley AV-8A / AV-8C Harrier

The AV-8A (company designation Harrier Mk 50) was the export Harrier for the US Marine Corps, broadly similar to the RAF GR.1. Magnesium parts that corroded at sea were removed, American radios and IFF fitted, Stencel ejection seats replaced the Martin-Bakers, and the outer pylons were wired from delivery for AIM-9 Sidewinders. Congress decided it was cheaper to buy from the existing British line, so all 102 AV-8As and eight TAV-8As were built by Hawker Siddeley; the first was accepted at Dunsfold on 6 January 1971.

The Marines used the Harrier to test small-ship operations: USS Guam served as an "Interim Sea Control Ship" from 1971 to 1973, and 14 Harriers deployed aboard the carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt for six months in 1976. From 1979 the surviving AV-8As were upgraded to AV-8C standard with ECM, new inertial navigation and Lift Improvement Devices to boost vertical take-off performance. The AV-8A/C fleet was retired by 1987, replaced by the AV-8B Harrier II.

Spain bought the near-identical AV-8S, called VA.1 Matador by the Spanish Navy, with the US acting as intermediary; it flew from the carrier Dédalo from 1976. In 1998 Spain sold seven single-seat and two two-seat Matadors to Thailand for the carrier HTMS Chakri Naruebet, where a shortage of spares kept few airworthy; the Royal Thai Navy retired the last first-generation Harriers in 2006.