Originally Posted by
Misformonkey
will do, thanks. It does make you think what happened but wasn’t reported outside of MoD. I didn’t think Russian subs were that quiet in the 80’s.
I can now! It was once UK Secret Eyes Bravo, now is in the NA. No Argentine submarine was even near this area at the time.
Again, on May 5th, 1982 a Tracker antisubmarine plane from the Argentine light carrier ARA 25 de Mayo was ordered to search an area near the mainland, looking for the patrol boat ARA Alferez Sobral, which was attacked earlier by British helicopters.
The Tracker (CO Lt. Carlos Cal) soon detected, by radar and latter visual, a small periscope or snorkel over the surface. Lt. Cal dropped then an Mk 44 and a sonobuoy. However, he could not track the torpedo run: the plane, because was configured for surface search, had not a sonobuoy receptor.
Alerted by the attack, another Tracker and two Sea Kings from the carrier were ordered to take off and rush to search and destroy the intruder. Arrived at the area, the new Tracker (CO Lt. Fortini) and one of the Sea King (the other had sonar problems) located and tracked (passively) a subsurface contact.
It is worth to mention the Tracker acustic operator had contact on three JEZEBEL (LOFAR) sonobuoys, and confirmed the source by nine MAD contacts. In addition, the Sea King helicopter heard the contact by its dipping sonar. After the helicopter confirmed the target, it guided the Tracker for a VECTAC, and then Lt. Fortini dropped a new Mk 44 over it. He saw the torpedo entering the water and he heard the torpedo duplicating its ping and it speeding (a sign of the torpedo acquiring a submerged target).
But none happened then. Contact was classified as a PROBSUB Confidence 1 in the scene and degraded to POSSUB Confidence 2/3 in the after action analysis, to the dismay of the Tracker / Sea King crewmembers.
Two actions. The same intruder?
Regards!