How To Invade The Falkland Islands

Since long before their invasion in 1982,the government of Argentina has regularly threatened and inconvenienced the people of the Falkland Islands.

The islanders are well used to such bluster and regard it with a haughty disdain.

However,many outside the Falklands,particularly those not familiar with the situation,regard such behaviour with more seriousness than it deserves.

This is particularly the case when the World's media decides that Argentina's latest rhetoric is a newsworthy story.

Such coverage can give many the impression that a second Falklands War is imminent,however unlikely that may be.

Even though an Argentinian invasion of the Falklands is a remote possibility,it is interesting to consider how they might go about such an operation.

First let us consider the opposing forces,for the sake of brevity we will list only the major combat units on both sides.

British forces in the Falkland islands consist of:one Type 42 destroyer somewhere in the South Atlantic;one infantry company;one anti aircraft battery and 4 Typhoon combat aircraft of 1435 Flight.

In addition,there is likely to be a British nuclear powered submarine somewhere in the Atlantic,though not necessarily near the Falklands.

Argentine forces consist of:five destroyers;six frigates;three corvettes;three submarines;eleven army brigades with all support arms (including one parachute brigade and other elements of the Fuerza de Despliegue Rápido rapid deployment force);two brigades of marines with supporting arms;forty eight fighter aircraft;thirty six light ground attack aircraft,eleven maritime patrol aircraft and 10 Hercules transport aircraft.

The first problem which the Argentinian forces must consider is that they are unlikely to be able to counter the British submarines which may be operating in the area.


Fortunately Britain's small submarine fleet is unlikely to be able to sustain more than one submarine in the Falklands and that can only be in one place at one time.


It would also be unable to engage Argentinian vessels which could quite legally approach close to the Falklands prior to the commencement of hostilities.


If Argentinian vessels dispersed and approached from different directions the submarine may be able to sink only a single vessel before the invading troops are landed.

Subsequent to combat operations beginning,the British Submarine will have less restrictive rules of engagement and will be able to interdict sea traffic to the Falklands.


Consequently it may be neccessary to support Argentinian ground forces by air after the commencement of hostilities as they did in 1982.

Argentinian air assault forces are likely to be the brigade sized Fuerza de Despliegue Rápido.

However,the Royal Air Force (R.A.F.) Typhoons based at Mount Pleasant airbase could shoot down any Argentine transport aircraft.

The Typhoons will then have to be neutralised before the air assault.

Argentine combat aircraft are far less capable than the Typhoon but far more numerous.

They would have little chance of destroying the Typhoons in air combat.

Fortunately there are only 4 Typhoons based in the Falklands,with only 3 likely to be operational on any day,and these are dependent on a single airfield.

Neutralising that airfield even temporarily may permanently neutralise the Typhoons.

The airbase on the Falklands is protected by a battery of Rapier anti-aircraft missiles.

While a direct bombing attack on the airfield may prevent the Typhoons from taking off or landing,such an attack is likely to be costly.

It is then more desirable to neutralise the airfield by other means.

The small size of the Falklands infantry garrison makes a ground assault on the airfield a viable proposition.

However,it would be time consuming to deploy an adequate force to the islands and for them to get to and seize the airfield.

Such an operation is then only viable after the Typhoons have been neutralised.

If an artillery battery could be positioned within range of the air base (a twenty five mile radius for the latest types of Argentine artillery),it could temporarily neutralise both the airfield and it's air defences.

By cratering the runway,or scattering mines on it an artillery battery can neutralise a runway temporarily.

Airborne Typhoons would be unable to land when they ran out of fuel.

Aircraft on the ground would be unable to take off.

British reinforcements would not be able to be brought in without a runway to land on.

Although the runway could be cleared,it could not be cleared quickly enough.


A similar effect can be acheived by getting man portable weapons such as the Argentinian R.B.S70 anti-aircraft missile,various long range sniper rifles,machineguns,mortars or anti-tank weapons within effective radius of the runway to engage aircraft on the ground.

Again however,the Typhoon threat must be neutralised for a short time in order to land an artillery battery and the infantry needed to protect it from the Falklands garrison or a major ground force.

As the primary means of air defence for the Falklands airspace these aircraft must conduct regular patrols as well as maintain a "Quick Reaction Alert" (Q.R.A.) to deal with any intrusions.

With just 4 Typhoons on the Falklands,it is likely that there are no more than 3 aircraft available for operations at any one time.

Fighter aircraft operate in pairs.

With just 3 available aircraft it is unlikely that 1435 Flight could sustain two daily patrols and maintain two aircraft permanently on Q.R.A.,this would be well above what British combat aircraft have generated in recent conflicts.

Once a patrol (and it's supporting tanker) run low on fuel,they must land.

After landing those aircraft are unavailable for a time due to the need for fuel and maintenance.

If the Q.R.A. pair can be encouraged to scramble while a patrol is out,then all of the defending aircraft may run low on fuel at a similar time.

In a peacetime situation,Argentinian aircraft can enter Falklands airspace with little fear of engagement.

Having no airborne early warning* and few fighters,defending British forces would have to intercept to investigate any contact which appeared above the horizon of their land based radars.

With many aircraft available and able to operate beneath this radar horizon,Argentinian forces can force the Typhoons to quickly consume their fuel investigating widely dispersed contacts.

However,this is unlikely to force the British to scramble their Q.R.A. pair.

The Falklands Islands government operates fisheries protection vessels within it's territorial waters.

With ten maritime patrol aircraft operating below the radar horizon of British land based radars,Argentina would have little difficulty locating one of these vessels.

The arrest of one of these vessels by the Argentinian Navy would certainly attract the attentions of the only British warship in the area,Her Majesty's Ship York.

However,York has little anti-submarine and anti-ship capability.

The fourteen anti-ship missile armed Argentinian destroyers,frigates and corvettes and three submarines would then be in a position to commence hostilities by destroying H.M.S. York.

The only assets able to assist the British warship in a hurry would be the two remaining Typhoons on Quick Reaction Alert.


Unfortunately they do not have anti ship missiles and would have to use laser guided bombs** dropped from well within the missile engagement envelopes of the Argentinian warships.

Thus all defending aircraft may be airborne at the same time.

From the moment those aircraft run low on fuel,it will be some considerable time before they can return to base,land,be refuelled and maintained and take off again.

During this period,air assault forces can be deployed by the ten Argentinian Hercules transport aircraft with little fear of interception .

Once artillery is set up within range of the runway,the Typhoons will be grounded for the duration of the conflict.

The British will be unable to reinforce their troops by air while Argentina will be able to quickly build up a substantial superiority in ground forces.

With no prospect of victory or evacuation,British forces in the Falkland Islands would have little option but to surrender.






*Open source material refers to 2 different "surface wave" Over The Horizon radars on the Falklands,an older system made by Marconi and a more recent system made by Insyte (there is also a civilian "sky wave" radar at Goose Green) it is possible that these may be located in the North West of East Falkland but we are not aware of any official acknowledgement of the existence of such radars.


**Update:at the start of operations against Libya it was found that Typhoons were not equipped even to drop laser guided bombs.

Warship Nomenclature (Work in progress)

Discussion of naval matters is often clouded by the many and various names by which types of warships are known and by the varying definitions of those names.

Each nation has it's own traditions of naming warship types and these change over time.

In the British Royal Navy a "frigate" was originally a "cruising ship" which patrolled independently when not operating in support of the ships of the battle line.

This term was also colloquially applied to "post ships" which were not technically frigates.

When Her Majesty's Ship Warrior joined the fleet in 1861 she was rated as an "armoured frigate" despite being more powerful than any ship of the battle line.

By the end of the nineteenth century,"cruising ships" had become known as "cruisers" and the term "frigate" fell out of use.

During the Second World War a new type of dedicated anti-submarine escort was given the title "frigate".

It is from these escort vessels which the modern British anti-submarine frigate is desceded,even though today it performs roles similar to those of it's eighteenth century ancestors.

In the days of sail,the United States Navy also used the term "frigate" to describe a cruising ship,though these American ships were much larger than British frigates.

After World War Two,American frigates were large fleet escorts confusingly also known as destroyers and destroyer leaders (after 1975,many of these were redesignated as cruisers!).

The current Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates are simple,low cost escorts intended for non fleet work.

These are descendents of the Second World War "destroyer escort",the American equivalent of the British wartime "frigate".

American "DD" destroyers are more comparable to modern european "frigates".

The French navy seems to be confused,giving the destroyer's "D" flag superior to ships which it calls frigates.

The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force has no "frigates" at all,it does however use the term "destroyer escort" to describe warships which would be frigates in most other navies.

While the latest Japanese "destroyers" are what most would refer to as "helicopter carriers".



The naming of different types of warships is a matter which has troubled seafighting men since the dawn of time.

Over two thousand years ago navies employed a rating system every bit as confusing as those in use today.

In ancient times rowed galleys  were rated by the number of files of oarsmen they carried on each side of the vessel.

The ram was the primary weapon of the warship and more oarsmen made a warship a faster more effective ram ship.

The ancient penteconters were uniremes with a single file of oarsmen to port and starboard.

Biremes had two rows of oars and oarsmen on each side.

Triremes had three rows of oars on each side.

However,quadquiremes instead had four oarsmen on each side,two per oar.

Just to add to the confusion there were also quinqueremes,hexaremes,septiremes,octeres,enneres and deceres.

Polyremes went all the way up to a "forty".

All of these ships had various combinations of more oars or more men per oar.

The distinction between ship types must have been every bit as unclear as the distinction between modern warship types.

Over the following centuries,sails became the primary means of propulsion at sea.

In the days of sail vessels were distinguished by the arrangement of their rigging.

Thus a sailor could distinguish between a brigantine,a snow,a brig,a ship or a schooner on the basis of her masts and sails.

However,vessels of many sizes often shared the same form of rigging.

For example,most large ships of the battle line were square rigged and three masted but so were frigates.

It was neccessary to differentiate between warships in other ways.

For five hundred years until the twentieth century the armament of warships was almost entirely made up of guns.

With all warships being similarly armed,warship types were differentiated by the number of guns they could carry.

This led to the development of the British Royal Navy's "rating system".

The most powerful warships were first rate "ships of the line" with 100 guns or more.

These were the vessels which were intended to do battle with enemy fleets.

Second rate ships were similar but carried fewer guns,though not less than 90.

Third rates were the mainstay of the battle fleet,carrying 60 to 90 guns.

Fourth rates were the smallest ships of the line which were also used as cruising ships.

Fifth rates were not ships of the battle line but "frigates",cruising ships with single gundecks and 30 to 44 guns.

Sixth rates were smaller "frigates" of 26 to 28 guns and "post ships" of 20 to 24 guns.

Below sixth rate were unrated minor warships such as snows,brigs,sloops,cutters and schooners which were usually defined by their rigging rather than their guns.

By the mid nineteenth century steam power was supplementing sail power on warships. 

By the end of the nineteenth century steam had replaced sails on most warships.

As warships no longer had rigging,terms such as brig,schooner and snow fell out of use for describing warship types.

With the advent of the Whitehead torpedo in the late nineteenth century naval warfare began a dramatic change.

Even the largest warships could be sunk by a weapon carried by the very smallest naval craft.

The threat posed by these "torpedo boats" was countered by a new type of warship,the "torpedo boat destroyer".

At the start of the twentieth century the torpedo armed "submarine" added to the range of threats at sea.

During the First World War the aircraft came of age as a weapon of war,attacking ships with torpedoes,bombs,guns and later rockets and guided missiles.

These developments rendered obsolete the historic order of precedence of warships as even the most powerful battleship could be sunk by both aircraft and submarines.

The number and size of guns a warship could carry became less important than it's ability to engage the whole range of threats.

As a ships rigging and number of guns was becoming irrelevant,warship types began to be named after the role they performed.

Ships of the line of battle became "battleships".

Frigates and other "cruising ships" became "cruisers".

The new torpedo carrying vesels were known as "torpedo boats".

Vessels designed to destroy torpedo boats were called "torpedo boat destroyers",later shortened to just "destroyer".

Submersible vessels were named "submarines".

While boats designed to hunt submarines were named "sub chasers".

The new aircraft carrying ships were simply named "aircraft carriers".

During the second world war there was an explosion of new types of warship.

The submarine threat to convoys led to the development of anti-submarine escorts which the British named "corvettes" and "frigates" despite them not being "cruising ships" like the corvettes and frigates of old.

Frequent amphibious operations led to a wide range of new amphibious warfare vessels.

Most new types of vessels were given descriptions rather than names.

The Landing Ship Dock.

The Landing Ship Infantry.

The Landing Craft Assault.

The Landing Ship tank.

The increased air threat led to the need for increased air defences on ships.

In addition,some vessels became specialised anti-aircraft ships.

Ships generally retained their earlier names when they took on new roles.

Cruisers in the anti-aircraft role were still cruisers.

Destroyers with added  anti-submarine capabilities were still destroyers.

Though the British reused the old terms "corvette" and "frigate" for new anti-submarine ships.

These descriptions were commonly abbreviated.

This led to a confusing array of acronymmery which continues to this day.

If an L.C.M. is a Landing Craft Mechanised,why is an L.C.S. a Littoral Combat Ship?

If an L.P.D is a Landing Personnel Dock,why is an A.P.D. an Attack Personnel Destroyer?

While there was a brief period of clarity at the turn of the twentieth century,today warship naming conventions are a mass of confusion.

There is now no clear definition of what constitutes a cruiser,destroyer,frigate,corvette,aircraft carrier or the recently fashionable "mothership".