Apart from

The Royal Marines

845 Naval Air Squadron

846 Naval Air Squadron

857 Naval Air Squadron

847 Naval Air Squadron

Fleet Diving unit................. Which may not seem a lot but when you consider that the CPA of Afghanistan is about 300 miles from the Sea then that isn't bad

EOD, Medical, Logs etc etc

and
Feel free to enlighten me ... you do realise the Belfast/canal comment wasn't entirely serious don't you..?

Hi guys!
I am sorry if someone felt unconfortable with my lastest post, it was not the intention.
I have been at the islands for only one week, and it was quite enough for me... there are not so many things to do there except going to the pub:}! What I wanted to express was that our countries are "fighting" for a piece of earth with no value except the people who lives there and the oil(or not).
If you read my first post in this topic, you will see that, in my oppinion, islanders will always prefer the UK rather than Argentina. No discussion about that... I am realistic. There is a paint in one street that says something like this: "Argentians are always welcome but do not claim about the islands" (I know that it´s not litteral). That gives you an idea of the islanders intentions.
The oil drilling maybe it is not profitable so do not be worried about the opposition of sudamerican countries... and if it were, I repeat, you have Chile.
PS: Everyone in Argentina knows that we do not have anything to do against UK! That should be a suicide. Unless we were talking about rugby....:O

Not bad indeed, but perhaps 10% of RN capability? Difficult to measure.

I seem to remember that the Shetland Islands were considered an environmental paradise at one time, then along came oil. The elders of the Shetlands proceeded to negotiate themselves some excellent terms and conditions and all environmental issues were 'overcome'!

Das Island, in the Arabian/Persian Gulf can only be supplied by sea or air and has been for the last fifty years, providing major oil field support.
I'm just amazed that Argentina tore up the agreement on oil, talk about self destruct!

10% ??? yer Joking.... Thats nearly half of us.

Nearly half the capability? We must be referring to different Royal Navies ...

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope - Chatham House Speech Nov 09
 

He said:

From last October (08) to April (09) this year, around 3,000 members of
the Naval Service provided over 30% of the UK forces deployed to Helmand,
including not only the Royal Marines of 3 Commando Brigade and the Harrier
jets of the Naval Strike Wing, but also Naval Air Squadron helicopters and
significant numbers of logistic, engineering, medical and HQ staff.

Reference http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files...09stanhope.pdf

:ok:

Admittedly only c. 10% of their total strength.

Don't you just love spinning stats!! :E

This thread is about BennyLand. Would all the navy willy-wavers spouting off about 'the Stan' please find another thread for such discussions.

Thank you.

I venture to suggest that supplying somewhere in the Persian Gulf entirely by sea/air is probably slightly easier than coping with the vile climate of the South Atlantic.

Bennys - Nots - Stills
 

Times change, but when oil field development was first mooted in the late 80s, there was a South African consortium which was proposing to run daily flights bringing in SA labour, fresh food etc (as well as surface movements for heavy goods) and taking the workers out to Sun City for their days off to take their money off them.

I would presume the sums still work.

Oil operations run from Africa
 

Now that would be sweet justice, are Argentina going to blockade shipping East of the Falklands? I don't think so.....

Well at least it looks as though, even though the broke MoD plans to throw way our MPA capability, we'll have a Vulcan again - an anonymous donor has just contributed £458 000 to the 558 Appeal Fund, so the £800 000 target has now been exceeded!

Andies - And they're still Bennies!

Hmm, I remember it as:

Bennys
Still (They're still Bennys)
Yetis (Yet they're still Bennys)
Andys (And yet they're still Bennys)

I'll bet it was the MOD, you never know, she may be needed again!!

Torygraph: Navy intercepts Argentinian warship near British waters

The Royal Navy has intercepted an Argentinian warship near British waters in an apparent escalation of the row over the Falkland Islands.

Destroyer HMS York spotted the vessel around ten miles inside the disputed “oil zone” around the South Atlantic islands. The British crew had to radio the Argentinian ship, a smaller corvette named ARA Drummond, to demand that it change its course.

Sources told The Sun that the ship made an “innocent navigational blunder” and were embarrassed about the mistake. :hmm:

It is believed that the Drummond was spotted sailing alongside a French fleet before it broke away and headed for the disputed zone.

Under international law, the 15 miles of sea surrounding the Falklands are officially British waters.

The ship was spotted around 65 miles from the islands, in an area of sea called the “conservation zone”. It is in this zone that the oil exploration is taking place. It is not illegal for Argentinian ships to enter it but the incident has heightened tensions.

A spokesman for the MoD played down the incident, insisting that the radio communication had been “friendly”. He said: “We can confirm that on 28 January this year during rough weather and at night, HMS YORK and an Argentine ship were operating in the same locality in international waters around 50 miles from Falkland Island Territorial Waters. After a friendly dialogue by radio they each continued with their own exercises.”

On Wednesday the MoD said that HMS York would remain the area around the islands. A British submarine has also been dispatched to the Falklands to patrol the area.

Argentina has since protested to the UN about the British oil exploration. Its foreign minister is due to meet Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

HMS York
 

York is in excellent hands, ex 849 Observer, which is,,, what it the word Im looking for? Ironic perhaps

Here's what will happen.

It'll cost the UK a fortune to extract/process the oil & somehow or other the Americans will end up with the proceeds.......again

Maybe more Brits will have to die for the US&A to profit.......again

For the duration of the process the general UK population (and therefore by proxy the general pPrune population) will have been given some BS excuse that they actually believe to be true.......again

Fools will continue to be fooled. :ok:

Just reading through this thread, I'm reminded of the early 20th century saying amongst naval personnel, who watched cut after cut after cut - and were then asked to do the impossible: "God and the navy we adore, when danger threatens, but not before".

Still true.