HH
I believe that when South Vietnam was being overrun by the North, and many South Vietnamese were fleeing for their lives, a South Vietnamese Hercules aircraft flew with about 300 people on board....
My point is, 60 people per aircraft is a standard load, if you're gambling and throwing the dice, why not overload aircraft that may well not be coming back anyway, or you already plan to disable on the runway to block it....
If you could put say 500 specialist armed troops, in one compact fighting unit rather than spread out, on MPA in one go, then you can have a considerable impact. Take the airfield, and hold it, or at least render it unusable, for say 48 hours, and you have immediate air superiority and time to follow up with amphibious landings opposed only by whatever the RN has left down there (probably one frigate).
That's not even taking into account any pre infiltrated SF units which might help your initial air assault succeed...
I haven't been to the Falklands for many years, so am only going on second hand information, but it is hardly "Fortress Falklands", no routine carriage of arms (no doubt all correctly locked up in armouries), accompanied tours, married quarters, etc. Is there a mind set down there still that it is potentially vulnerable, or is it another Singapore scenario?
An Argentine assault on the islands might work, it might not, but if you're a gambler maybe you have little to lose?
Last edited by Biggus; 9th Dec 2012 at 09:53.