Britains Small Wars - Falklands (1982)

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Britains Small Wars - Falklands (1982)

 

Not only were the Harriers responsible for allowing the Task Force to function but they saved our a***s at Goose Green. God bless those pilots is all i can say.

Sniper

 

Does the Royal Navy still have Aircraft Carriers now ???

 

At the moment they do but in a short time when Ark Royal is taken out of service there will only be one which can only carry helicopters until the two new ones are built. Would be a good time for the Argies to make another claim on the islands.

Sniper

 

So what is there now?

A regiment? 4 Tornadoes? Unknown sub capability. What else?

No NZ jokes please.

 

Well looks like we are ging to lose a regiment, all the harriers, all the tornados, a fleet of ships and a whole load of camps are going to be closed.

Sniper

 

Hi Forumers.
The last time something as devastating as this happened to our defense forces we had a war.
However then we were proudly a United Kingdom, with a Commonwealth to help us.
We are probably one of the worst off of all the powers in WWII, now completely on our knees. financialy, it seems contradictory that we won the war.

Keith DCLXI

 

Yes thanks to Labour Goverment spending money like water, seems they are the same as Cheshire County Council who are all but bankrupt. Its the same thing everytime Labour get into goverment, they spend the money and the Conservatives have to sort the financial mess they leave the country in, happened in the 70's and 80's and now again. I think the Monster Raving Luney Party could do a better job than those idiots in Labour.

Sniper

 

What in hell is going on in the World - Seems like nearly every nation is going broke. It is time for people to really look hard at how the government is spending their money. A country defense forces should never suffer large cuts in such a volitile world

 

Hi John,
Glad to see you're still in there fighting, don't tell me Ausieland is suffering from the same governmental disease !

Cheers
Keith DCLXII

 

Hi Keith
Yes we have the same problems in Aussieland - Not as bad as what is happening over there - They have left our Military alone at the moment because of Afghanistan

 

There was talk of us losing the Gurka's in the cuts. Now that would be a very sad day if that happened.

 

as i understand the cuts, 1 in 6 deployable battalions will go. all the harriers and tornados will go, to be eventually replaced with the new strike fighter not due to come in until 2020 [remember that year for a moment]. The Ark Royal will be decommissioned almost immediately to be replaced with the queen elizabeth and prince of wales in 2018. Its cheaper for the government to continue with these two than scrap the programme, however when they are commissioned one will be instantly mothballed. the new strike fighters that will populate the new carriers will not be available until two years later, so they will sail with no british jets on board, but will be able to accommodate french and american jets.
the navy will also lose 4 of its surface fleet, but the submarine fleet is untouched.

 

Are the new fighters you are waiting till 2020 for the JSF F35/36? If so why do you have to wait so long for them?

Edit{ I thought that places like GB would be amongst the first from out side the USA to get their hands on such air craft.}End Edit

 

Now our Navy is having problems also. We can find money to waste but not to keep our ships in sea going shape

Navy half-steam ahead in battle of the budget | Courier Mail

 

yeah ,it's a famous war and everyone heard of it before

 

The cuts imposed by the Thatcher government prior to April 2 1982 were the main motivation for the Argentine regime to believe that we wouldn't react to a hypothetical invasion.

She cut the Royal Navy to the bone and more. She sold off an aircraft carrier to Australia, the Illustrious, and then had to go cap in hand to the Australian government to say, "Can we have it back, please". Luckily the Australians were very helpful. She was scrapping many ships and facilities. I even remember a debate about whether the Royal Marines were for the chop or not.

Curiously, the scrapping that gave the biggest green light to Galtieri was the plan to retire the Antarctic exploration vessel HMS Endurance. Not exactly a ship with a lot of firepower, but the message was patently clear to Argentina "We are no longer interested in the South Atlantic".

After the war, when the dust had died down and Defence Secretary John Nott had been discreetly sacrificed, there was no official reprimand for Thatcher's appalling treatment of the armed services up to the war, and her dilly dallying and mishandling of clear military intelligence for a good three weeks before the invasion that the Argies were going in.

 

This was such a pointless war. I think that this war marked the end of the british empire. It filled the UK with ridicule, in my opinion.

 

Thinking specifically of the Falklands War, did anyone else see the documentary the other night about the raid by a lone Vulcan bomber on the airstrip at Port Stanley, just before the fleet arrived? It was absolutely fascinating - the Vulcan had never seen active service, it was using technology from the 1940s so it although it looked so modern, it was really obsolete before it was built. But the raid had to be done - it was a warning to the Argentinians that the Task Force was genuinely prepared to strike, and it was also to protect the Task Force and the troops from the risk of attacks by the Argentinian planes then stationed at Port Stanley. The refuelling exercise alone was astonishing, it involved 12 refuelling planes, all of which were completely dedicated to their task, to the extent that each of them nearly ditched on their homeward run because they were running out of fuel. The last one had to be refuelled while it was homeward bound, otherwise it would definitely have ditched. The Vulcan was also refuelled homeward bound.

If it comes on again - set the timer recording!