Oh Dear!!
I have watched this thread and promised myself that I would not respond.............
But here I go!!
Sharkey was no braver than any other Harrier participant in '82, so let's not overdo what he did. He is just more vociferous and he gets more attention thanks to modern communications!!
After the 1 May encounter, as far as I recall, no Argentinian fighter armed with air-to-air missiles entered the Falklands airspace. If they did, then they certainly did not use them.
Thank you Black Buck for that!
I seem to recall that some/many Mirage fighters were held back to defend the mainland in case Maggie decided to attack the Argie Heartland!! Unlikely, perhaps, but good spoof, so well done Maggie and the Vulcan Team!!
As far as the Sea Jets were concerned, it quickly became a "Turkey Shoot" when they encountered Argie aircraft.
Big Strategic/Tactical error by the Argie heirarchy.
When the RAF GR3s arrived - mid May - the RN Sea Jets gave up attacking land targets, apart from the occasional radar offset toss/loft dumb bomb attacks which were conducted clear from any ground defence threat..
Sharkey and his boys - and the greater number of Sea Jet folk on HERMES - spent most of the conflict at medium altitude, seeking aircraft which did not have missile escort so, once seen, a quick turn for pursuit without looking for escort fighters was the way to go, given that the Sea Jet did not have speed superiority over the Mirage or the A-4. Great effort by all those involved, and those that achieved "kills" deserve credit for all that they did.
On HERMES, we got on extremely well with our RN colleagues, and I am unaware of any significant or worthwhile inter-Service difficulty above the rank of Lt Cdr/ Sqn Ldr. But I do think that very few of us got on well with the heirarchy that were telling us what to do.
Many - perhaps all - those involved in flying operations did a good job - as did the supporting troops who kept the jets flying under some pretty extreme and difficult circumstances. I, again, am not aware of any inter-Service difficulty between the light/dark blue folk that kept the jets flying.
But let's keep a sensible perspective.
I spent 3 years on exchange with the USN, and I am a firm believer that Carriers have a great power projection role. For the particular circumstances of the Falklands in 82, they were an essential item - but you need to have enough of them to be reliable and available wherever you need them, and they need to be big enough to have the necessary power projection to be worth the cost and effort of the self defence and support that they need.
Can we, as a nation, now afford to do that?
Now, hypothetically, if that exocet in '82 had found INVINCIBLE instead of ATLANTIC CONVEYOR....................
What might have been the current debate???
Last edited by ex-fast-jets; 24th Jun 2013 at 02:06.