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

Masomnia

If there's as much oil as in the North Sea then we can definitely afford to defend the islands; may even create a few jobs!

undetterred

Thought the test Wells drew a blank in the Falklands?

Andy_L

Road_Hog wrote: »

You can, the flag ship is usually the most advanced or most prestige ship of the fleet.

The flag ship is the ship best suited for the Admiral to do thier job on. That tends to mean lots of communications gear and space for them & their staff as well as the ships normal crew. That would make Ocean a good choice - plus it would make it easier for them to Liase with the Ground Force commanger as he'd be on Ocean as well.

Why prefer a Type 45? As an escort it would be put in harms way to defend important ships like Ocean - as were the Type 42s in the Falklands in '82 to protect the carriers & transports

funkyfreddy9k

GDB2222 wrote: »

As can be verified by this impressive link.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/1385288/Marines-storm-ashore-in-the-wrong-country.html

haha forgot about that.

Maybe that's the answer to Europes problems?!

IronWolf

Last war we desomated their airfields with a team of about 10 SAS people. I'm not worried.

Road_Hog

Andy_L wrote: »

The flag ship is the ship best suited for the Admiral to do thier job on. That tends to mean lots of communications gear and space for them & their staff as well as the ships normal crew. That would make Ocean a good choice - plus it would make it easier for them to Liase with the Ground Force commanger as he'd be on Ocean as well.

Why prefer a Type 45? As an escort it would be put in harms way to defend important ships like Ocean - as were the Type 42s in the Falklands in '82 to protect the carriers & transports

Which part of the following link, that tells you that HMS Ocean is not the flag ship, do you not understand?

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/The-Fleet/Ships/Assault-Ships/HMS-bulwark

The first sentence, HMS Bulwark is the flag ship. What is the obsession about HMS Ocean?

Road_Hog

Andy_L wrote: »

Why prefer a Type 45? As an escort it would be put in harms way to defend important ships like Ocean - as were the Type 42s in the Falklands in '82 to protect the carriers & transports

Oooh, let me think about that one for a minute.

Okay, you're Ocean and I'm type 45.

Your speed, 18 knots max.

Mine, 30 knots.

Your Armament: 3x Phalanx CIWS
4x 20mm[2]
Aircraft carried: Up to 18 helicopters (typically Westland Commando and Lynx but also Merlins, Boeing Chinooks, Westland Apache), capable of carrying (but not operating) up to 15 VTOL aircraft such as RAF Harrier II

I don't think we have any Harriers anymore, so scrub them and most of those helicopters will be stored, not ready on deck. Certainly Chinooks aren't going to be attacking anything.

My armament:
Anti-air missiles;
Sea Viper air defence system, SYLVER A50 VLS with a combination of up to 48 anti-air missiles;
Aster 15 missiles - short to medium range. (2-30 km)
Aster 30 missiles - long range missile. (3-120 km)

Guns;
1 x BAE 4.5 inch Mk8 Mod. 1 gun
2 x 30 mm guns
2 x Phalanx CIWS
2 x miniguns
6 x general purpose machine guns

Decoys;
Surface ship torpedo defence

Provision for but not fitted with;
2 x Quad Boeing AGM-84 Harpoon launchers (8 anti-ship missiles)
BGM-109 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles
Aircraft carried:
1-2× Lynx HMA8 Armed with
4× Sea Skua anti ship missiles, or
2× anti submarine torpedoes

or 1× Westland Merlin HM1[6] Armed with
4× anti submarine torpedoes
Aviation facilities: Flight deck and enclosed hangar for up to two medium-lift helicopters

grizzly1911

My understanding at the time and from much reading of books by prominent military figures since is that we were lucky to retake the Falklands. A lot of it was done on a wing and a prayer and determination by some gritty individuals pushing things to the limits.

Whilst I doubt the Argentinians will invade again they can make holding them very very costly and that is ultimately what will seal their fate, sooner rather than later, if there isn't "real" oil down there.

Andy_L

Road_Hog wrote: »

Oooh, let me think about that one for a minute.

Okay, you're Ocean and I'm type 45.

[Snip wikipedia ship top-trumps]

Type 45 is, undeinably, better armed & individually protected (although I'm not sure its weapon systems are yet declared fully operational).
However, As an Admiral in a flagship, the ships armaments are irrelevant. Whats important are comms & space to work which Type 45, compared to Ocean, does not provide. In a fleet a high value assest like Ocean will be defended by multiple Air Defence Destroyers, Anti-submarine Frigates - its lack of armament is an irrelevance.

Batchy

Love this board... experts on everything here!

Entertaining reading guys... :-) now get out the mistletoe and kiss and make up! ;-)