The Falklands / The Malvinas - (again?)
 

Is this just sabre rattling or do the Argentine government spot a significant weakness here?

Argentina to blockade Falkland waters in dispute over oil rights - Times Online

A couple of British Royal Navy submarines in the area should be enough to keep the Argentinians in port.

Just a little nudge from Argentina to see how a very distracted elsewhere (and broke) Brit gummit (and military) will react?

The same topic/scenario was posited quite recently here on another thread and some said "it'll never happen".

It would be VERY interesting to see (and, IMHO, very, very unlikely) if Mr Braun had the balls to "do a Belgrano" on a blockading warship to prove he's willing to do more than prevaricate and pontificate.

Perhaps the RAF could send a Nimrod or 2 to patrol the waters - and carrier-based naval Sea Harriers could protect them from any Argentine air threat....

Then there's always the RAF's long range bombing force if things get hot!


And then I woke up.....:ugh:

According to the BBC (YES I KNOW) the foreign office are playing this down and making overtures Hmm I seem to remember it was this sort of back scuttling that set the scene for the war in the first place.

It may be just sabre rattling but the threat is there. As we have a past with the Argies it should be taken seriously.I see this from a civvie point as I have been out of uniform for 20 years.But they will be well aware you guys and girls are over stretched.They know that major cutbacks are going to be made who ever gets in power.We no longer have the fleet we did to send South and the majority of heavy Helo support is in the Sandpit.The world economic situation is a basket case and those that have Oil could dictate to those that have not as this commodity gets less and less, especially as the largest resources are in the Middle East and in a constant potential war zone now that Iran has declared itself a Nuclear Power with all the problems that will entail such as sanctions (yet again)and the on-going threat of an Israeli strike.
But the essential points are we are under equipped,over stretched,under manned to fight on at least 2 fronts,don't have anything like the Naval power we did,have no long-range strike capability as the Vulcans have gone and MPA would be in range of the Argies and the tankers are tied up in other theatres. Gordy wouldn't do what Mrs. T did and may string it out until after the election in the near future(May 6) He hasn't got the bottle and then he can blame the new Government for doing nothing.Makes me think why he did a deal with the Libyans a few months ago for their Oil after we released the PanAm bomber.If the Argies did go the military route would there be really anything we could do? The cupboard is well and truly bare and any potential enemy is going to exploit that especially when it is so far from these shores.

How bare (or otherwise) is the Argentine cupboard, and do THEY have the capability or the forces to pull anything off? Bearing in mind how much worse their economic situation has been, for a significantly longer time.

BEagle.
Now you are awake, let me re assure you that we have plenty of assets to deal with this.
The government will tell you that the MOD has 1100 fixed wing and rotary aircraft. Now, as there are only a small fraction of those being used for Afghanistan, then there must be loads left for the Falklands!

Surely no government would be so devious to come up with a large figure such as this, to make the public believe we are stronger in the air than we actually are!
I mean, this figure cannot be mostly types like ATC gliders, UAS aircraft and trainers (with the BBMF and C130K's thrown in) can it?:E

On second thoughts, maybe you might need some hot coco before retiring tonight......To stop you having any more of your fanciful dreams

Perhaps we will shortly hear from Gen Richards on how he plans to thwart this threat. Regrettably, Cyclops01 hasn’t places us in a good position for this; mainly when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

I think you have all worked out that this isn’t a threat of a reinvasion but one of harassment of shipping. That could tip the balance between oil extraction being safe and profitable and it not. We are not overly well off for submarines just now and they are not particularly useful for this sort of operation. Think more ‘70s “cod war” and “OFFSHORE TAPESTRY” than Op CORPORATE.. Suitable uncommitted and manned surface ships are also not that abundant at the moment. Johnny Gaucho needs to do very little with very little to severely sod us about.

Interesting times.

I always knew there was reason to keep XH 558 flying. Do you think the MoD might consider being be it's new sponsor?

I will point out in passing that, politically, Kirchner is in a bad position due to the state of the economy, taxes, etc and, as with the Falklands War, it will be a vote winner. Militarily, Chavez has been pushing for robust regional action against UK/USA interests in the area and has previously volunteered military support if requested.

Yes, I think there are still a few Hastings around - but I doubt whether any are still serviceable.

Good job the RAF has got lots of Nimrods still, isn't it.....:hmm:??

I hope the answer is "Lot's of Chinooks" some time after 2015, cos otherwise we're stuffed.....

Ah, Sir Fred’s wonderliner. Regrettably, the only Hastings with reach we have now is called Max.

Indeed, Nimrods would be ideal for spotting and marking the bad buggers but fall rather into the “submarine” category with regard to projecting effect that’s not lethal. Also, could MPA support a couple (would 2 do it?) of Nimrods, the very important Tanker, the Herc and the Typhoons?

Uk Paranoia!!!
 

A guys, stop your nightmares about Argentine and Malvinas.

After the Malvinas war, the UK goberment and its American causins has blocked any weaponry sale to my country.

Our army forces are very, very weak at this moment. Nobody is thinking about going to war with UK.

First of all we don't have any landing ship for an invation (ARA San Antonio was scraped many years ago, the ARA Bahia Paraiso was sunk in the Antartic and the Icebreaker ARA Almirante Irizar was burned two years ago and it is in extensive repairs).

From our two Type 42 destroyers, ARA Santisima Trinidad was face out and use as spares for the other. The ARA Hercules was modified as command ship and its Sea Dart lunching capability was withdraw from her.

We have 4 Meko 360 Frigattes but without a credible antisubmarine detection and fighting capability. We have learned the ARA Belgrano leasson...

About your subs...don't be so confident...because we have two TR1700 and one 209...the last time all your fleet specialiaze in antisubmarine warefare couldn't catch a single 209...

But guys if you want to feed your bad dreams just take a look to these pictures...

Please resize the picture that was here before you post it again. Way too big.


http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/5556/am39sue.jpg


http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/325...lnticosur1.jpg

SWEET DREAMS...

Although using RAF aircraft is probably the easiest way to keep an eye on the Argentinians, it is not the only way*. Britain already has forces dedicated to
protecting assets in seaways, and they have a variety of ways to do this
(I'm not going very far on this, so no shouts of beadwindow please).
The above forces can make good use of our subs, and tend to be robust in their
attitude (probably no i-pods on board lol).
That said, I feel that Gordon Browne would not even consider using them, and
would just about let the Argies have or do anything they want.
If Margaret Thatcher's attitude was described as 'over my dead body' then Mr
Browne's may be more akin to 'chuck me a few quid and it's yours'.

*Luckily, as all the good stuff for this is being scrapped/sold as quick as possible:(

Edited to add: I typed this before seeing cosmiccomet's post, which seems to possibly be celebrating the sinking of civilian shipping.

If the Royal Navy can't stop a few East African pirates in wooden boats what chance do they have of protecting our interests around the Falklands/malvinas? :rolleyes:

"SWEET DREAMS... "

amusing caption for a picture claiming you hit HMS Invincible!


The Argentine Government isn't interested in reclaiming the islands, this is yet more tubthumping for domestic consumption nothing more!

Noo thats not a hit, its the proposed budget cuts..... :p

Dear Barnstormer,
I have to correct you about your comments about the Atlantic Conveyor sinking.
That was a civil merchant ship commissioned by the British Government to transport
Supplies to help the landing campaign during the war.
It was loaded with military supplies. You can see many pictures of the ship sailing to the South Atlantic
with its deck full of Chinooks, Wessex and even Sea Harriers. So it was a military target.
The SHR were ferried shortly before the attack that’s why she was sailing very close to the
HMS Hermes.
You cannot blame the Argentine Navy Pilots for attacking her. They couldn’t distinguished between
war ships and supply ships in their screens.
The AM39 Exocet were lunch against the biggest target and they were deviated by the UK electronic countermeasures. But the missiles reacquired another target which was the Atlantic Conveyor.
We can talk about other civil merchant ships commissioned by one of the belligerent governments.
The Narwal was a fishing ship used by the Argentine Navy for electronic warfare and she was strafed run and sunk by two Sea Harriers.
The ARA Isla de los Estados was a merchant transport ship used by the navy to transport supplies for the Argentinean troops in Port Howard and Darwin.
She was catched by the HMS Alacrity and sunk using her cannon. Only two sailors survived to the sinking.
Moreover, the HMS UGANDA was targeted by five Skyhawk A4B on the 28th but the formation commander ordered to abort the attack after seeing the red crosses.
About the HMS Invincible attack, you have your story and we have our.
We have to wait until the British government discloses the secret information about that matter.
Until that happens I will believe what my pilots tell about that attack.
I would like to express my deeply sorry and respect for all your loses.

But I would like also to stress that my government and all the Argentinian Republic is not going to stop claiming its rights over those islands.

It is a state policy written with the blood of our people.