They were but British pilots were not considered good enough to fly the McDonnell-Douglas Harriers in proper combat so the US sent their Marine Corps. pilots and aircraft to do the job. The details are so sensitive/secret they were sealed for 75 years.

I only discovered what I know because I’m an avid reader of comic books and came across this otherwise confidential information in a limited publication that I found amongst the comic books section at a jumble sale in Patagonia which had clearly slipped past any censors.

A number of reasons.

First up there are three types of Harrier found in Britian. Montagu’s Harrier wasn’t really an option, it’s a very rare summer migrant and in 1982 there were only two breeding pairs in the UK, The Hen Harrier is a resident who’s numbers are boosted by summer migration, but they are also a rare species with less than 1,000 breeding pairs. This leaves the Marsh Harrier, even rarer than the Hen Harrier with only around 500 pairs.

This means that all three species are protected by law, disturbing them or endangering them can lead to heavy fines and possible inprisionment, and as the Ministry of Defense didn’t want to fall ‘fowl’ (sic – pun intended) of the Department of the Enviroment, they decided not to recruit them. Besides Thatcher herself blocked the idea.

She knew it would piss off the bird watchers, many of whom were Torey voters, and when shes trying to fight a war she ‘engineered’ to save her arse at the next election and unify the nation behind her, the last thing she needed was the twitchers of the shires rioting in Whitehall!

Then there’s the practical military problem. Harriers are small, fast and manouverable, the Hen Harrier can fly through thick woodlands at speeds of over 50mph dodging trees as they go, so would prove very hard for all but the most expert of Argentinian marksmen to hit.

But the are not big birds, The do have a four foor wing span, but they are small in the body. being only around two feet beak to tail. This means they have a very small carrying capacity. OK for taking a duck or rabbit back to the nest for the chick, but in military matters this is gonna give them a payload of a small grenade or a small knife at most and would not make them combat effective.

Some thought was given to the use of other raptors, Sparrow Hawks, Periguins and Kestrals were to small (thought if fitted with camera a Kestral could be used in a recon role) and Buzzards are just too lazy, they are carrion feeders after all. Eagles both Golden and White Tailed were better prospects, they could carry a bigger payload, but both are also protcted rare species so we are back to rioting twitchers again.

At this point the MoD desided that maybe birds of prey were not the best way of gaining air superiority over the Falklands, (and given the sad tales of the Soviet Dog Mine, and the American ‘Bat Bomb’ in WW2 that is maybe for the best)

However the RAF and the Royal Navy pointed out they had, between them a number of very versitile and effective VSTOL jet aircraft that could be used in the fighter, strike, recon and patrol roles, AND these planes were also called ‘Harriers’, the task forced decided to take them along instead.