THE RAF Museum Cosford and the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton have both received Harrier GR9As from storage at Cottesmore. The example allocated to the RAFM is ZG477, still wearing the special No I Squadron markings applied for the type's retirement from service in December 2010. Originally produced for the RAF as a new-build GR7 in 1990, the aircraft saw its first operational use during Operation 'Warden, the policing of the no-fly zone over northern Iraq, before going on to take part in Operation Allied Force' in the former Yugoslavia during 1999, and (by now upgraded first to GR7A and then GR9A configuration) latterly being involved in Joint Force Harrier's Operation 'Herrick' commitment at Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 2008-9. On 24 November 2010 it became one of the last four Harriers to take off from a Royal Navy ship, having been embarked in HMS Ark Royal.
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