Indian Navy Retires Sea Harriers

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http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/naval/naval-aviation/2016/03/21/indian-navy-retires-sea-harriers/82070296/

>NEW DELHI — The Indian Navy has retired the Sea Harrier fleet that operated from its aircraft carrier INS Viraat, and plans to replace them with MiG- 29Ks that India has bought from Russia.

>The Indian Navy bought 30 British-made Sea Harriers in 1983 but only 11 now remain. The Navy once considered upgrading the Sea Harriers but abandoned the plan.

>The Sea Harrier pilots are now being trained to fly the Russian MiG 29K fighter aircraft. India had planned to replace the Sea Harriers with the homemade Light Combat Aircraft (Naval) version but the program is more than 15 years behind schedule, said an Indian Navy official.

OP comment: These were the last serving Sea Harrier variant -- the only current serving variant of the Harriers still in service are the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) AV-8B Harrier II with the United States Marine Core, Spanish Navy and Italian Navy.