Falklands Conflict in the Air | How British Harriers beat the odds

When the Fulton

conflict

began, it seemed that Argentina had a huge advantage in the skies: they had more than a hundred aircraft of different types, some could operate from the Argentine mainland and others could operate from landing strips in the Falklands themselves, while the British task force was initially restricted. It was up to the

harriers

of justice that fit on their two aircraft carriers to protect the task force at sea, as well as the troops on land. For many, this seemed like an impossible task in this third episode of our Malvinas series. We'll examine the

conflict

in the air, how big the Argentine advantage was, how each side changed their strategy, and how the British pilots overcame the

odds

and took control of the skies on paper.

Argentina had air supremacy over the Malvinas Islands. Britain would do it. I need an excellent high performance fixed wing fighter aircraft if there were any attempt to counter the Argentine advantage. It was the plane behind me, the Harrier, and its naval cousin, the Sea Harrier, on which British hopes were pinned, but we'll take a closer look. Later, as the British task force made its way into the South Atlantic, the Argentines began establishing defenses on the islands with men constantly ferrying supplies at the main airport which was at Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, with other airfields. smaller ones at Goose Green and Pebble Island Stanley was the only rugged all-weather runway in the Falklands, but it was still not long enough for the fast Argentine planes that remained on the mainland;

The Argentine Air Force had purchased Dusselt Mirage, three IAI daggers, Douglas A4 Skyhawks and even English electric canbras. In Britain in the 1970s, supersonic mirages and daggers were a serious threat, but flying from the Argentine mainland put them at the limit of their fuel range. The Argentine Navy had a winter aircraft carrier, the Senco de Mayo, which was also equipped with Skyhawks while from the mainland. They flew the dosso brigay super Eton Dart, which could be fitted with the feared Exorcet anti-ship missile, five of which were known to be in the Argentine Armory. The Argentines also had several smaller light attack aircraft based at the Falcons airfields, as well as IA-58 Picaras like the one behind me was a two-seat, low-wing, twin-turboproc ground attack and counterinsurgency aircraft. two cannons, four machine guns and bombs and rockets could be attached to the three external hardpoints.

It was low performance compared especially to the Mirage, but it was maneuverable and could take off from short, rugged airfields, perfect for the Falklands. This aircraft joined Taki's Arya Group Three or Strike Group 3 at Port Stanley on 29 May 1982, piloted by 1st Lieutenant Ayadi, carried out several armed escort missions for Chinook helicopters and on 10 June was involved In an attack on Mount Kent in the East Falklands in the face of all these Argentine aircraft, it was crucial for Britain to establish air superiority before attempting to land troops in the Falklands. The first step was to eliminate the island's most important airfield at Stanley.

Denying its use would not only demonstrate Britain's willingness to fight for the Falklands but would also force a change of strategy for the Argentines, but carrying out such a raid would have been a very difficult job for a bomber. fly over 3,800 miles from Ascension Island to Stanley with multiple air-to-air refueling. Maneuvers along the way damage the runway enough to negate its use and then fly back to Ascension. This was the plane they chose for the job. Avro Vulcan B2, a high-altitude jet-powered strategic bomber designed to carry Britain's nuclear weapons during the Cold War, the Vulcan had two defining characteristics that were suddenly in demand: its long-range capability, which could be expanded by refueling of fuel, and its capacity to carry 21,000 pound bombs, this particular Vulcan was delivered to iwm Duxford just a month before the Falklands conflict began by a pilot called Martin Withers.

The Ministry of Defense actually asked if they could recover the Vulcan, but the museum managed to persuade them otherwise, which they probably did. was Pro fuel and for very good reasons at the time the Vulcan attack on Port Stanley would become the longest range bombing mission in the history of air warfare, codenamed the black book attack just before the midnight on 30 April 1982, two Vulcan bombers and 11 Victor tankers took off from Wide Awake airfield on Ascension Island almost immediately, the lead Vulcan suffered a technical difficulty, which meant that the reserve Vulcan piloted xm-607 by Martin Withers had to take control.

Over the next eight hours, the Victor air tankers completed a complex sequence. of fuel transfers to the Vulcan and to each other, this process was not without problems, but on the morning of May 1 they reached the goal. Withers and his crew dropped the 21,000 pound bomb payload from 10,000 feet, one bomb cratered the runway and the others caused further damage to the airfield a few hours later, I saw the Hermes Harriers follow up with more attacks on the Stanley and Goose Green airstrips. XM-607 later returned to Ascension Island after 16 hours in the air, the black book raid. May 1 would be the first of seven black book ratings throughout May and June 1982.

The short- and long-term success of these raids is still debated; There is controversy over whether the cost of resources in terms of the number of aircraft and the amount of fuel used, for example, together with the risk involved to people, but that could ever be justified when assessing the possibly limited impact of the missions, but although its physical impact is debated, its tactical impact is clear: the raid on May 1 demonstrated that the Royal Air Force had the scope to bomb airfields in the Falklands and, therefore, had the potential to reach continental Argentina in response to that threat.

Argentina decided to retain more of their fast Jets to protect the continent. The next day, things got worse. Worse still, when the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by the submarine HMS Conquistador, this forced the Argentine Navy, including the Vintage Cinco de Mayo, to largely retreat to Puerto; they would no longer play any role in the conflict in the first air-to-air battles over the Falklands, the British refused to climb to the mirage's optimal altitude and vice versa, when they finally engaged, the Argentines lost two mirages and one Canberra, all shot down by British sea

harriers

, in addition to their fuel problems.

The Argentine pilots were also inexperienced, more prepared for a war with Chile than fighting in the South Atlantic while on the ground. which almost set the pattern for all subsequent operations. It gave us enormous confidence. Seen from the other side, I think the demoralizing effect on the Argentine Air Force must have been colossal. Now that pattern, I am happy to say continued, they decided to retain a number of aircraft in defense of their airfield to the coast if they had actually committed more aircraft to deal with the Combat Air Patrol over the landing area, perhaps it would have been different from this point, Argentina essentially tried to avoid air-to-air combat with the harriers by using mirages as decoys to take them out while daggers and Skyhawks attacked the fleet, it seemed Argentina's air power was not ready to be, until 4 May, when HMS Sheffield was attacked by a pair of Argentine Super 8s with darts that hit her. one of the two The British remained predominantly out of reach east of the Falklands for the remainder of the conflict;

However, by increasing the distance they had to fly, this reduced the amount of time the harriers could spend over the islands, leaving ships and ground forces more exposed. On May 21 the first British landings began. In the Falklands, to minimize this still considerable air threat, the British decided to land at San Carlos in the East Falklands, the hills around the bay being expected to provide waters protected from air attack, but that did not stop the Argentines from attempting with British ships. The Skyhawks were attacked by rogues, mirages and daggers over the next few days, but it was the Skyhawks that would become the most feared silhouette as British forces could see the aircraft's impressive maneuverability against the sky from the ships below.

Few Argentine pilots had been trained at low altitude. -level flight and even less to undertake attacks on ships in open waters. Having flown for hours to mainland Argentina, they only had the opportunity to take part in a few attacks before returning home, but despite all that they managed to cause significant damage throughout the trip. While under fire from the ships below and the sea harriers, we persuaded the flight commander that it would be a good idea to stay on the ship, of course, we never realized that this was the biggest mistake of Our Lives because everyone, I'm sure I was watching the ships get hit, they used to break the mass of the ship's antennas, the pilots flew so low that at first we thought the Argentine Air Force was crazy, but as time went by we changed drastically our opinion, they were very professional and the way they carried out a business, they went down the water of San Carlos, the first one just shot out of the sky, three missiles that hit plants in disrepair were possibly some of the bravest men throughout the entire campaign, I mean, if everything they dropped had exploded, we would still be down there fighting, fortunately for the British, many of the Argentine bombs did not explode due to problems with the configuration of their fuses.

Basically, the plane had flown at a lower altitude than the fuses had been set, so the bombs hit their target. before they had a chance to explode, if there had not been this problem with the bomb fuses, the losses in the water of San Carlos would have been catastrophic, on May 25, 1982 three ships had sunk and eight more were damaged However, Argentina's decision to target ships in the Falklands Strait meant that ground forces were able to land unopposed. The British troops were now only 13 miles from the Argentine garrison at Darwin and Goose Green and only 50 miles from Port Stanley.

Despite their successes at San Carlos, the Argentine Air Forces were sustaining losses at an alarming rate, they were unable to maintain this type of attacks for a long time, however, with a limited number of British aircraft in the skies, there were inevitably gaps in the Harrier's combat air patrols, that is exactly what happened on June 8 during the Fitzroy. air raids As British troops advanced for attacks from the mountains around Port Stanley, the Royal Fleet auxiliary ships or Galahad and Sir Tristram were attacked. Both ships were severely damaged by Argentine Skyhawks, killing 50 men and wounding another 150. Argentine air raids on the same day sank a British landing craft killing six and severely damaged HMS Plymouth.

It was at times like this that British helicopters became crucial, varying casualties in field hospitals or on board ships since the sinking of the SS Atlantic transporter and the heavy lift helicopters carrying the remainder. The helicopters and their crews were operating at the limit of their capacity. The British forces were supported by a variety of helicopters, including the only surviving Boeing Chinook and the Westland Gazelle searching for links. The Wasp Scout and Wessex helicopters were the workhorses of British forces during the Falklands conflict. The Wessex helicopter behind me last flew on 8 December 1980, so it did not serve during the Falklands conflict, but the Wessex type of helicopter is probably best known for its exploits in the Falklands at the beginning of the conflict, They helped sink the Argentine submarine Santa Fe and recapture South Georgia from Argentine forces in April 1982.

Towards the end of the conflict, in June, a West 65 fires two AS12 missiles at Port Stanley City Hall, aiming to kill the Argentine Hernández, who was inside, but did not reach the police station,so the Wessex helicopter played a crucial role in closing the conflict a week after the disaster in Fitzroy. British troops would enter Stanley when the Argentines surrendered. So how did the British prevail? How did they

beat

the

odds

in the air? The answer, at least in part. Is the Harrier one of the key features of the Harrier was its V stall capability, which means short vertical takeoff and landing, this essentially means being able to take off from the ground vertically, straight up and take off in a short amount of time.

Runway gr3s. They are equipped with a Rolls-Royce Pegasus 103 turbofan engine and four nozzles on each side of the aircraft to achieve V-Star. The pilot would change the direction of the aircraft's thrust by rotating its nozzles. The ability to take off and land vertically would prove invaluable when operating from aircraft carriers. , especially when the flight decks were already full of other aircraft, the Harrier's benefits were not just logistical, it was also an excellent fighter aircraft. The Sea Harriers were mainly used in air-to-air combat, protecting the ground troops of the task force while the harriers were slower than the mirages and Argentine daggers had an important trick up their sleeve: targeting the Sidewinder 9l air-to-air missile, while that previous air-to-air missiles could only be fired directly behind the enemy.

The Sidewinder operating regardless of position gave British pilots a huge advantage: those pilots had been testing their dogfighting skills against the best NATO had to offer for many years, making them a formidable fighting force. . Their equipment and training allowed the British to dominate the air-to-air battle. Of the 10 eaglets lost during the None of the conflicts occurred due to enemy aircraft, while Argentina lost at least 20 in aerial combat alone. I saw these two forms of low Delta oscillation. I flew through them thinking we have a fight here now at last and as I moved into the turn.

There was in the sky in front of me Steve firing the first missile when it exploded, a large flare darkened the entire plane, but by that time Steve had already switched his attention to his second Min art, which was some distance ahead he fired the second Sidewinder . and this was really driving me crazy at the moment when I passed this wonderful thing to see, you know, it's happening, it's fantastic, but while I was thinking like this, there was a third dagger that was behind me, it was firing its cannons at me and then taught Christ. You know, look at a six o'clock shark.

You know I was still in the hard corner the whole time. I looked at Brown and there was a Mirage passing below me. Beautiful camouflage colors. All I really had to do was pull down hard and he didn't. I have no chance because I put it behind him and tried my massage. The initial 20 British Sea Harriers were joined by more Sea Harriers and Harrier gr3s, the latter operated by the RAF's Number One Fighter Squadron from the very unfamiliar environment of an aircraft carrier, it was thought. that the gr3s would be used as replacements for the C Harrier losses, but those losses were so few that they ended up being assigned primarily with their classic ground attack attacking Argentine positions around Darwin and Goose Green and supporting British forces around Mount Kent and in the assault. at Port Stanley so that the gr3 could operate from aircraft carriers modifications were required and rapid modifications were made to the gr3 airframe and systems including radar and navigation, it was even reported that holes were drilled in the airframe to allowing seawater to drain out of this particular Harrier. gr3 operated from a temporary landing strip established at San Carlos, which allowed it to respond more quickly to strike missions if necessary and also freed up space on the aircraft carriers.

This Harrier carried out attacks around Port Stanley and undertook a reconnaissance mission in search of ground-launched exorcets. missiles attacked positions on Mount Harriet and narrowly escaped an Argentine surface-to-air missile over Mount London which exploded just one hundred feet or 30 meters above the cabin. After the conflict he was transferred back to the United Kingdom and has been in idbm Duxford since 1992. Wars are not fought on paper. Argentina seemed to have an advantage in the skies over the Falklands with superior numbers and closer supply lines, but in reality the advantage in training and technology made the fight much more even.

Things could have gone a long way. Worse for the British if an aircraft carrier had been lost, if the landing forces had been attacked at San Carlos, but in the final weeks of the conflict, British harriers and helicopters dominated the skies over the Falklands, of course the final battle for control would have to be released. On land, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss our penultimate episode exploring the land battles for the Falklands.