Op Corporate 2, Calm Down Please
Anyone would think there is an election on with news of escalating tensions in the South Atlantic.
In what seems more like a squabble over money and resources than territory the Argentine authorities have declared that any shipping that wishes to travel between Argentina and the Falkland Islands (including South Sandwich and South Georgia) must seek permission.
This is a gradual upping of the general tempo around an issue which has never been fully resolved, i.e. Argentina continues to refuse accept that the Falklands are the Falklands and not the Malvinas.
A Type 42 destroyer, HMS York, which was launched a week after the surrender of the Argentine forces on the Falklands in 1982 is already in the area and has been for a while, not sailing south as reported by the tabloids.
One has to wonder if the decision last year to replace the Type 23 Frigate HMS Northumberland with RFA Largs Bay to allow the frigate to join the anti piracy task force off the coast of Somalia emboldened Argentina by showing just how numerically challenged the Royal Navy has become.
It is likely that this will fizzle out and the presence of a sizeable garrison, the existing RN vessels in the area, 4 Typhoons and a 10,000 foot runway at RAF Mount Pleasant have served their deterrent purpose.
There may even be a Tomahawk armed SSN in the area, there may not be though, which is exactly the point of submarines. They could be sitting a few miles of the coast and no one would know about it.
There is more combat experience in an average UK infantry platoon than there is the Argentine Army (Ejército Argentino) and what have the UK armed forces and Falkland Islands Defence Force have been doing for the last 30 odd years; that would be preparing for another invasion then!
Much better to win the fight by not fighting than having to fight to regain the islands
We should not be over confident though because over confidence leads to complacency.
Expect to see a mention of this in the First Sea Lord’s speech at the IISS next week as the Falklands are used to justify CVF and JCA and no doubt the RAF will be talking up the Typhoon, which will of course have saved the day!
Why let risks, security and real issues get in the way of justifying ones major programmes
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PS What we *really* need are some specialised missiles that will fly straight to Buenos Aires and spraypaint “Maradona walks like a big girl” on the side of Boca Juniors FC’s football stadium ;o)
Euan,couldn’t agree more with every point you made. Throw some C RAM air defence guns into the mix for defending against the Argentines sneakily buying or building cruise missiles, and the Mount Pleasant airfield is pretty much untouchable – certainly, it couldn’t be put out of action for long.
Unless the Argentines get hold of atomic dirigibles at long last. Then, we can only pray.
[...] from Think Defence: Much better to win the fight by not fighting than having to fight to regain the [...]
Hmmm! Yes I’ve been following the hysterics as well online it’s a long shot at best that anything will happen and if it does it will be Argentina harassing the Oil Companies or something like that I doubt there will be shooting. If they do like they might be getting up to something deploy a squadron of Eurofighters to the Islands alongside tankers and possibly AWACS as well as additional Rapier FSC units. Something I think should be done is improvements to Port Stanley airport to allow for the possibility of large aircraft using the strip in an emergency it would also be a good excuse to finally upgrade the port facilities in Stanley. I would mention the Royal Navy here but err! We still have a navy really that’s interesting I thought we had managed to sell most of it or leave it to rot tied up in mothballs.