The Sea Harriers of 801 Naval Air Squadron have been going through their paces in the United States.

The Naval fighter squadron undertook trials on behalf of the Sea Harrier Operational Evaluation Unit, with one half of the squadron undertaking AMRAAM (Advanced Medium Range Anti Air Missile) firings at Point Mugu, a range to the north of Los Angeles, and the other half operating out of Naval Air Station China Lake, the US Navy’s weapons testing range.

As part of the China Lake detachment, 801 Squadron undertook a variety of trials which would benefit not only the Sea Harrier, but also the fast jet aircraft of the RAF.

Members of the squadron also made the most of the visit to California, with adventurous training in the Grand Canyon and Mount Whitney and visits to other cultural sites – including Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The missile trials – officially the 2002 Sea Harrier In-Service Firings – at Point Mugu were designed to enhance knowledge of the Raytheon AIM 120B AMRAAM missile system that has equipped the FRA2 Sea Harrier for the past 15 years.

This air intercept missile has a range and capability far in excess of anything else in the UK air-to-air missile inventory – hence the need to detach the squadron to the wider airspaces of the Western United States to conduct the trials safely.

The trial concentrated on five different scenarios designed to stretch the missile to the limits of its performance, including shots against a jamming target and the first-ever Sea Harrier firing performed over land. The missiles performed as expected.

At around £750,000 per missile, AMRAAM firings are very infrequent. So for Lts Stembridge, Arkle, Segebarth (801 NAS), Gotke (800 NAS) and Tidball (899 NAS) it was a rare opportunity to experience the unforgettable sight and sound of a 3.5 metre missile thundering away from the aircraft at incredible speeds.

When not involved in live firings, or flying chase sorties for other shots, the pilots at Port Mugu undertook affiliation training against a variety of American fighters, including the F-14 Tomcat and F-16 Fighting Falcon.

801 NAS also attended the airshow at MCAS Miramar near San Diego – the only foreign unit to be invited to this high-profile event.

In the final week of the visit, with the trials successfully completed, the squadron had the opportunity to use a number of 1,000lb and 540lb bombs which allowed the aircrew to refresh their air-to-ground skills.

China Lake includes a vast area to the north of the airfield which is dedicated to air-to-ground operations – part of the range is a dry lakebed that has a variety of targets for training purposes, including old trucks and vehicles, against which the Sea Harriers practised their operational steep-dive profiles.

The squadron worked with the US Marine Corps AV8B Harriers, which are based at China Lake as a test squadron.

They acted as airborne close air support (CAS) controllers, using rockets to provide smoke on the assigned targets.

For many of the more junior pilots who had done little CAS and only dropped practice bombs it was an invaluable experience to work with the Americans and to be involved in an air-to-ground role representative of realistic operational scenarios.

Non-flying aircrew and engineers were able to watch the action from a nearby hillside, which only served to increase the concentration of the flying pilots.

Results were impressive with the longest bomb only 50ft away from the target and many direct hits.

The accuracy that the squadron was able to achieve was great testament to Sea Harriers diverse capability and once again proved the multi-role capability of the much-admired aircraft.