THS, always worth remembering that the reports about Argentinas military being in a utter ****-state come from a single media source, and one hostile to Argentina.

its also worth remembering that their 'defence' journalists are probably as bad and as ill-informed as the vast majority of ours are, and that the original article was written in Spanish, not English, and therefore there may be errors in the translation of technical points and nuances.

yes, they probably are in a poor state, and yes, its obvious from the well publicided problem they are having with one of their ships being stuck in South Africa awaiting critical parts that they are having a short term cash flow problem, but that does negate them completely, or mean they will be in the same state in 3 months time. it also does not mean that we aren't being fed a line - one that we're gulping down like a tramp on chips.

RC ... My bad ... Yes SBS :ok:

Don't tell me they've bought Astute Class boats?

Three, two TR1700 German design and pretty fast for a diesel Electric and an older T209 if my memory serves me right!

Can I recommend "The Great Falklands Gamble: Revealed" at 7pm on Channel 5 tonight.

cokecan

The current state of the Argentine armed forces is pretty well covered down in this part of the world, with information from multiple sources including the military themselves, and often from sources very friendly to Argentina.

Nobody is feeding anyone a line, their military really is in a bad state. There has been no significant investment since the 1980s and nothing is going to change in three years, let alone three months. They have a very long term cash flow problem, and the fact that Argentina is totally skint means that's not about to change an time soon.

What you also need to remember is that defeat in the Falklands brought about the end of the military junta and a return to something resembling democracy. Nobody wanted another military coup, so there was no investment in the forces for years. You can't recover that kind of neglect overnight.

TTFN

Well, this is what the argies do to their type 42s - as of today in Puerto Belgrano Apparently a 6" tube broke???

Esperan que el buque de la Armada toque fondo para repararlo - lanacion.com *

I guess that is one less warship to worry about. I wonder if they'll be asking for a repair under warranty?

LOL, very good :ok:

One less for us to sink if it kicks off soon !

I was looking for an aircraft carrier in the aerial shot but she must be at sea, working up! ;)

One less 42
 

According to the site the 42 has been out of service since 2000 with only minimal crew on board since 2004.

However, is it me, my old eye or is there something strange about that aerial phot? The corvettes bottom right or the frigates top and middle left

// T

Another photograph of it here;

Malvinas War ship sinking at Navy base - BuenosAiresHerald.com

"Small crew to act as guards"

Probably didn't have water tight doors shut
and / or couldn't shut them fast enough once
the leak was discovered.

2004 - 2013 - that's a fair while to be tied up,
seeing how many ships on display corrode and
need major repairs, what gave way ?

Small crew - employment of dwarfs?

I suggest that that ship will never go to sea again.

Apologies if this link has been posted before...

Argentine navy short on spares and resources for training and maintenance — MercoPress

And it's over......

Desde el Gobierno no descartan que el hundimiento del Santísima Trinidad se haya tratado de un sabotaje - lanacion.com

Apparently the government have been claiming it's sabotage. Have Hereford's finest been on a training mission ahead of the referendum?

Didn't someone post a few weeks ago that the T42s had thin hulls that eroded relatively quickly, making them short-lived vessels?

"And it's over....."

Not surprising if you move the boats that were holding it upright :O

Milo

The main problem with the T42's (apart from their lack of decent fire control and a goalkeeper gun) was that the original design wasn't long enough which made them pretty poor sea boats - the Mk2's were lengthened by +10m I think

They've done around 30 years of hard service so I think the basic structure wasn't too bad

Google Translate's version of that last story:

l Defense Minister Arturo Puricelli, did not rule out sabotage tonight in the sinking of the Holy Trinity in Puerto Belgrano Naval Base, announced that the Navy requested a summary and instruct that could be sanctions.

The official said it opened a "valve" and that this was "a wreck in a matter of hours at a time when our President was fulfilling a successful trip abroad", so it did not rule out sabotage in that fact.

"It seems very strange that a vessel is disabled and a minimum guard can sink within hours," the official told the Public TV.

He added: "I asked the Navy chief to instruct a summary because there is a rare hand or to look for a coherent and logical because a ship is sinking 70 and parked in the harbor" Belgrano Naval Base.

Exemplified that "Sarmiento Corvette has over one hundred years, is in Puerto Madero and does not sink. Would not rule anything because some people use the armed forces to criticize our government."

"The Government has no responsibility and if there is the Ministry of Defense and the Navy men who were monitoring the ship, that they should have provided the means to not matter what happened."

He emphasized that "there can be a sinking ship in 70 hours, is a ship that was to be scrapped, but it certainly did not warrant ancient shipwreck would think that the mere fact of being moored in the harbor."

"What I had and have to explain our armed guard is that there was a minimum to alert to any circumstances and that's what was not met," said the minister.

He noted that "individual responsibility is the group of Puerto Belgrano stockpile that was responsible for monitoring the ship, without prejudice to the responsibility of higher authorities" and that "the minimum duty should have warned that a vessel of forty sink, is a modern vessel. " And said: "After the preliminary investigation that I look quite quickly and when you see the responsibility will undoubtedly sanctions

Someone is going to get a meeting, hat on, no tea or coffee :O