Hi Mog
I was very interested in your recount of the incident on the Nawhal.
I was an F4 Nav on the first F4 detachment to Stanley in Oct 1982 and was the Sqn. Intelligence Officer. As such I had access to the TS room in BFFI HQ. When they did not want me to know something, they all started to speak to each other in Russian, some of which I understood which shook them somewhat (when they realised eventually). What was amazing to me (and we were a SACLANT assigned Sqn.) was the they did not know (or seem to care) about the F4 radar capability. I eventually visited HMS Yarmouth (I think it was) and talked to the fighter controllers and briefed them on exactly what we could do for them and their radar pickets. They were, amazingly, amazed.
At that time w e were primarily tasked with "presence sorties" designed to show we could operate anywhere but the Argentine AF were denied the 200nm Exclusion Zone (EZ) and we had specific orders to engage them inside it.. So, accordingly, once we got airborne heading West to 30,000ft, we did a full (sanitisation as Sharkey would describe it ) plot of the whole area ,200nm from our position, the maximum range of the F4 pulse radar, which was of course plotted on the picket's Air Ground Environment screens. The pickets were delighted with this info and I am sure it gave them great comfort in their operations.
One day we got airborne and did our usual surveillance. We could see the Polish fishing fleet inside the EZ and the Argentine fishing fleet outside it but I got a single surface contact well clear of all the others, which was exactly on the EZ limit. We were tasked to investigate. Unlike your trips, we had to be singletons in operation so we decided to go in 10,000ft - low enough to be visual but above Manpads. Like you we saw a stern trawler but with clear decks and an array of antennas. We reported and orbited, very wary of it being rabbit bait. I could almost hear the clunk of the communication train to Whitehall and started to understand why we were carrying the SU-23 gun pod (1200 rounds of High Explosive Incendiary ammuniition- at 100 rounds per sec) but was very relieved to be told some 10 minutes later that the Navy would take over. Although if ordered, we would have, in hindsight, I was relieved that we had not travelled 8000nm to take out 5 sailors in the middle of nowhere and not for a particularly good reason (unlike your circumstances).
A story not yet documented but it meant lot to me.
The Sweep
Last edited by BSweeper; 1st Nov 2020 at 01:02.