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Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.3

Laser nose, radar warning and a stronger Pegasus — the definitive first-generation RAF Harrier · New-build from 1976 · Last delivered 1986

The GR.3 brought the RAF's Harrier fleet up to its final first-generation standard. A lengthened nose housed the Ferranti Laser Ranger and Marked Target Seeker, a radar warning receiver was added on the fin and tail boom, and the Pegasus 11 (Mk 103) raised thrust to about 95.9 kN. About 62 GR.1/GR.1As were converted and 40 new GR.3s were built, the last delivered in December 1986.

GR.3s formed the RAF's Harrier force in West Germany, moved forward to Gütersloh in 1977, and also deployed to Norway and to Belize, where the Harrier was the only RAF combat jet able to use the airport's short runway until British forces left in 1993. No. 1453 Flight was based in the Falkland Islands from August 1983 to June 1985.

In the 1982 Falklands War ten GR.3s of No. 1 Squadron operated from HMS Hermes after hasty navalisation, flying mainly close air support while the Sea Harriers handled air defence; four GR.3s were lost. The type was replaced in RAF service by the second-generation Harrier GR5/GR7.