Page 104 - Demo

104Harriers at ASI en route Atlantic Conveyor.were flown to Ascension, using in-flight refuelling. The GR3s were ableto accomplish this 4000 mile leg in one hop, thus creating, at that time,new milestones in single-seat ferry flight times of over nine hours. Onceat Ascension, the aircraft were flown onto the Atlantic Conveyor andtightly parked in the %u2018aircraft hide%u2019 which had been built between thewalls of containers. They were then %u2018bagged%u2019 to give added protectionagainst salt water.With a total of fourteen Harriers and ten helicopters embarked thiswas a very valuable target and, during the passage south, one Sea Harrierwas kept at a high state of readiness for air defence duties against theArgentinean Boeing 707. For the first few days, tanker support was alsoavailable to give the Sea Harrier additional radius of action. The very useof a container ship as a carrier of aircraft, let alone the ability to mount,albeit limited, operations from it, is a hallmark of the Harrier%u2019s enormousflexibility.Having left Ascension on the evening of 7 May, the AtlanticConveyor, in company with other ships of the Amphibious Group, madea rendezvous with the Task Force on 18 May and the Harriers weretransferred to the two carriers, ten to Hermes and four to Invincible. Allthe GR3s went to Hermes and, after one day of work-up training, thesquadron flew its first operational sortie on 20 May.In the 2%u00bd weeks between the arrival of the Task Force in the TEZ andour arrival, no Sea Harriers had been lost in air combat and so, instead ofbeing replacements, the GR3s were used as reinforcements and, rightly,