To answer some of the points in the previous posts;
1. Basing Belgrano at Stanley. First of all you have to get her there without being sunk especially as we had an SSN on station by April 18. Placing Canopus there in 1914 to deter the German was sound tactical sense then because they didn't have Sea Harriers to lob 1,000lb bombs at you 20 times a day. I discount this theory for these two reasons alone and I guess the Argentines did also. If it could be done in WW2 it certainly could in 1982.
2. Hercules: She was not fully worked up when she left Portsmouth in January 1982 IIRC. In terms of proficiency of her weapons systems and ops team she would not have passed FOST. She was also much nosier than our T42s which is why she kept being found so often. The ADAWS system on the Argentine T42 was "simpler" than ours and the miss distances of her Sea Dart system would have caused much arse scratching in RN circles. She did detect Flt Lt Mortimer's Shar but did not lock him up and certainly did not let a bird loose. She also ran aground playing hide and and seek in coastal waters with our SSNs.
Last edited by Navaleye; 28th Mar 2008 at 13:27.