Falkland Islands under threat once more - huge oil reserves in peril

Andy_L

ruggedtoast wrote: »

I'm sure they can restore capability that can reach from Argentina to the Falklands faster than we can restore ours. .

You may be sure, but you are mistaken
Any Falklands campaign is now about not losing them in the 1st palce rather than recapturing them
We can fly light infantry & combat aircraft down to reinforce far more quickly than they can build an amphibious capability to take the islands

ruggedtoast

How did they manage to invade the first time then? I was under the impression we were hanging on in the first conflict and only won due to America providing a lot of Sidewinder missiles at next to no notice.

Edit:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/25/falklands-britains-expensive-nuisance

Britain was very lucky to win the Falklands war. Had a freelance navy occupation of South Georgia not !pre-empted a planned later invasion, and had America not overtly and !covertly backed the British task force, Thatcher's desperate gamble might have failed and the Argentine occupation succeeded, like India's seizure of !Portuguese Goa which it imitated. (It was even called Plan Goa.)

That war is unlikely to be repeated. But this cannot allow us to ignore its causes. Distant colonies are a post-imperial anachronism. Britain will have to negotiate with Argentina because the world, either at the UN or at The Hague, will insist on it. The government and media can bury their heads in the sand, but that will not make the Falklands dispute go away or atone for the dead of the silliest of wars a quarter century ago.

Andy_L

ruggedtoast wrote: »

How did they manage to invade the first time then? I was under the impression we were hanging on in the first conflict and only won due to America providing a lot of Sidewinder missiles at next to no notice.

Edit:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/25/falklands-britains-expensive-nuisance

we had ~40 troops defending the islands
we wern't paying attention to S.America
all our trainig & equipment was about fighting the USSR in N.Europe & the Atlantic rather than 1/2 the world away

None of which are now the case. Whilst we learnt from the Falklands (& subsequent conflicts) & requipped in the light of that experience the Argentine Millitary have prety much staid as they were 30 years ago

ruggedtoast

Andy_L wrote: »

we had ~40 troops defending the islands
we wern't paying attention to S.America
all our trainig & equipment was about fighting the USSR in N.Europe & the Atlantic rather than 1/2 the world away

None of which are now the case. Whilst we learnt from the Falklands (& subsequent conflicts) & requipped in the light of that experience the Argentine Millitary have prety much staid as they were 30 years ago

Oh well, s0d 'em, then.

wotsthat

Maybe we should all stop consuming imports from Argentina - no point helping them to fund an invasion fleet.

The wine's no problem (it's muck) but I bet we consume loads of soya and beef.

Road_Hog

GlynD wrote: »

HMS Ocean is much more than a helicopter carrier.

HMS Ocean is not the flag ship (actually I gave the wrong ship earlier, HMS Bulwark the sister ship has taken over from HMS Albion). And even if it were, it's still a helicopter carrier and not a surface vessel that I would want as my flag ship.

GlynD

I don't buy any Argentinian produce at all. Not because I boycott them but because they have nothing I want to buy. So no money of mine in those second hand ships they buy from the US.

GlynD

Road_Hog wrote: »

HMS Ocean is not the flag ship (actually I gave the wrong ship earlier, HMS Bulwark the sister ship has taken over from HMS Albion). And even if it were, it's still a helicopter carrier and not a surface vessel that I would want as my flag ship.

You can't say which ship the navy commander will fly his flag from. Ocean is an "amphibious assault ship". She was designed to replace Albion & Bulwark and is the largest ship in the navy.

wotsthat

GlynD wrote: »

I don't buy any Argentinia produce at all. Not because I boycott them but because they have nothing I want to buy. So no money of mine in those second hand ships they buy from the US.

Depends what you eat.

Argentinian beef is probably finding it's way into a meat pie near you. The British meat you buy is likely to have been fed on Argentinian soya to a greater or lesser extent.

wymondham

If I heard rightly we have a nuclear sub that is continuosuly down there and could take out any threats long enough for reinforcements to arrive... it's all a lot different to the 80's ....