The Falklands thread

I have to laugh at people getting off at discussing weapons.

It's a political issue first and formost, not a 'my daddy is bigger than you'.
 
I have to laugh at people getting off at discussing weapons.

It's a political issue first and formost, not a 'my daddy is bigger than you'.

Balls to talking

Strike first .............. Then talk

The argies pulled out off all talks we had on about the island.
 
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I have to laugh at people getting off at discussing weapons.

It's a political issue first and formost, not a 'my daddy is bigger than you'.

You can't ignore that military strength isn't part of the political argument, if Argentina was strong and we were week, the political argument would be quite different and we'd have to make concessions to Argentina that we otherwise wouldn't make.
 
You can't ignore that military strength isn't part of the political argument, if Argentina was strong and we were week, the political argument would be quite different and we'd have to make concessions to Argentina that we otherwise wouldn't make.

Granted it is a part of the political argument, but I think that people here simply enjoy talking about weapons more than anything else.
 
What's wrong with that?

With regards to my comments about discussing weapons in this way? Personally I find it a bit childish, it reminds me of when me and my brother would look through a pack of top trumps with glee. It's trivialising quite a serious issue into a game.

I'm not sure why I've decided to be quite so high horse on this issue. Probably because I'm somewhat sympathetic to the Argentine cause.
 
Given that we know nothing about the real political situation going on behind closed doors and that Argentina’s claim to the islands along with the attitude they seem to be taking is laughable, we seem to have talked about most of the history and political issues at hand, so until something new comes around I guess we could either let this thread die, or talk about the ins and outs of our military, which is proving quite interesting.

I agree with you to a point however what’s been highlighted is we don't have as many holes in our navy as many of us thought and some people have some strange ideas about what we can and can't do, it’s a good discussion, lots of people are learning about things, the discussion has been largely sensible, so it’s all good in my books.

I'm not sympathetic to the Argentine cause, if they had gone about negotiations like a real country then perhaps I’d have more time for them, however this situation has only exposed Argentina further and shown how poorly run the country is.
 
All politics are local or so they say. The international nature of these recent pronouncements are not all that serious but they do play well to the home crowd. Is there an election coming up in Argentina soon?
 
All politics are local or so they say. The international nature of these recent pronouncements are not all that serious but they do play well to the home crowd. Is there an election coming up in Argentina soon?

It's been and gone - happened when I was there.

No alcohol sales after 6pm the day before election day and it's illegal not to vote :eek:
 
I think Argentina lost all credibility when they first invaded. Before that happened, they were going about things in the right way.

They are behaving a bit like Germany now, as they seem to think they can just erase that embarrassment from memory and describe it as a "illegal action by a dictatorship government". But no, the Argentine people fully supported their government at the time. There were celebrations in the streets. It was only after the occupation failed that they turned on their government.

Flaunting weapons isn't big or clever but it seems to be all that Argentina actually listens to. We've tried to teach them the history books for centuries but they won't listen.

There is one good thing that comes out of this. Nobody knew in Britain what a "Type 45" was a couple weeks ago, or that we actually have some of them. And most people thought we just had some Vanguard subs carrying nukes, but didn't realise we had attack subs just like out of the movies. It seems to me that we learnt from past mistakes and now fully automated anti-missile and anti-aircraft systems on our ships are commonplace. Whereas back in the 80s they were not. From what I can see the most potent piece of kit installed on the Type 45 is the "Phalanx CIWS". This is an American designed piece of kit that looks like R2D2 from Star Wars. Fully automated gattling gun with built-in radar that locks onto nearby enemy planes or incoming ballistic missiles and shoots them down with a gattling gun. It is an amazing piece of kit. If we had these back in the 80s the Exocet's would never have scored a single hit! And Argentine planes wouldn't have dared come close to our ships as they would have literally got ripped in half! Oh and every Type 45 has TWO of these beasts.

Britain seems to have mastered a relatively recent acquired ability to completely underestimate itself militarily. I think it is partly a lack of confidence that comes from not actually having a aircraft carrier any more.
 
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I think Argentina lost all credibility when they first invaded. Before that happened, they were going about things in the right way.
Just to point it out, whilst they were passionate about the falklands, the invasion was a stunt pulled by a ruthless dictatorship to gain appeal. Yes, the Argentines are passionate about the Falklands but it wasn't even possible to be against it. It was like 1930s Germany. You couldn't even travel in public in groups of more than three or you would dissapear, it was a tragic time for Argentina.

It was only after the occupation failed that they turned on their government.
Oh man, that's just so innacurate :(
 
From what I can see the most potent piece of kit installed on the Type 45 is the "Phalanx CIWS". This is an American designed piece of kit that looks like R2D2 from Star Wars. Fully automated gattling gun with built-in radar that locks onto nearby enemy planes or incoming ballistic missiles and shoots them down with a gattling gun. It is an amazing piece of kit. If we had these back in the 80s the Exocet's would never have scored a single hit! And Argentine planes wouldn't have dared come close to our ships as they would have literally got ripped in half! Oh and every Type 45 has TWO of these beasts.

Britain seems to have mastered a relatively recent acquired ability to completely underestimate itself militarily. I think it is partly a lack of confidence that comes from not actually having a aircraft carrier any more.

The Phalanx is a last line of defence should everything else have failed, the most impressive part of the Type 45 is without a doubt its Radars and command and control interface, it's an amazing bit of kit, secondly the Asters are really smart, the Phalanx has been around for ages.

The general population have been drilled for years about our subs, they have been all over the papers since the 80's, and in recent times all over the TV in documentary’s, I’m not sure how many know what types we have but i'd like to think quite a few know we have a wide range.
 
Which brings me back to my original point that while the T45 may be fitted for them they currently don't carry either making its anti-ship significantly weakened.

Unless you believe that a enemy ship may be scared off by the empty weapons slot.

'hang on lads, dont attack that ship! if we get to close it may sail all the way back to the UK, have a month long refit to put the anti-ship weapons back on, sail all the way back here and sink us!'

A Harpoon kit could probably be flown down and fitted whilst down there if necessary, they could just take a couple of launchers of a T23 in refit. But given the Argentine outcry at us even sending it down there, if we had sent it down there AND fitted it with an offensive weapon which Harpoon is specially for this deployment, there would have been even more crying from them.
 
Phalanx has never scored a in a battle hit either if memory serves, unless you count when it screwed up and a us ship hit another one with it, the missile was later intercepted by a royal navy missile anyway.
 
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