HMS Belfast vs ARA General Belgrano.

HMS Belfast vs ARA General Belgrano

  • HMS Belfast

    Votes: 84 95.5%
  • ARA General Belgrano

    Votes: 5 5.7%

  • Total voters
    88
As an Irish man of nationalist background voting for a Royal Navy is odd for me.

2nded

You don't need to feel odd about that BELFAST.

I work with a Eire-man who served 10 years in the British Army (Irish Guards) His claim to fame was that he touched Princess Diana's arse when the the Hereford Hooligans mock attacked one of the Palaces posing as Provo's after she argued about getting into the Daimler limo without her kids!

After shouting "Get in there you fecking fool!" he shoved her through the doors, both hands on her cheeks!

Asking him why he joined the BA despite in 'The Troubles' and being a 'Mick' he stated

"Why would I join the Eire's military when it's only a glorified militia . . . if I'm going to join the military I might as well join the best in the world!!!"

And this is from a man who has an Irish tricolore tattoo on his upper arm.
 
I'm going with "Mutual Kills" once the Argie escorts salvo off their own missiles.
For this scenario we assumed the Argies escorts and the RN escorts have their own separate thing going on and only the Belgrano and Belfast are going head to head.
 
For this scenario we assumed the Argies escorts and the RN escorts have their own separate thing going on and only the Belgrano and Belfast are going head to head.
Yeah but that doesn't work in real life, does it? For starters, there's a good chance both sides prioritize the opposite cruiser with the majoirty of the missile salvo. If it comes down to gun fight and, for some reason, the escorts are still afloat, the 2 argentinian DDs easily outgun the 2 RN DDs, which would mean they woudl soon turn to the Belfast.
 
Interesting suggestion and i don't really know. But i would expect that an RN crew had the edge in training (and the ship might be better maintained). Fire control could be better also.

The later cruisers Tiger and Blake were still in reserve in 1982 but it was judged unfeasible to reactivate them. A POD that had one of them still in service may be more plausible. Or perhaps their sister ship Lion could have received the conversion you outline for Belfast rather than being scrapped in the late 1970s.
If it was in current RN use then yes it would be in excellent condition compare to the Belgrano. The Belgrano, which had just come out of refit!, had many watertight doors which could not be closed due to there being so much paint on the hatches. Crap though some of the British yards were in the 1970's, none of them would have not bothered to chip the old paint off and I am fairly certain no RN captain would have accepted a ship with watertight hatches which weren't when it came out of refit.

Also the RN escort would have the Mk6 twin or Mk8 single 4.5" automatic gun, they are capable for throwing a lot of HE down range at a respectable rate of speed and with really good accuracy.
 
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For this scenario we assumed the Argies escorts and the RN escorts have their own separate thing going on and only the Belgrano and Belfast are going head to head.

Yes, but the Argies will finish up early after they pull a pair of Sheffields, at which point, if they have any missiles left, Belfast eats them.
 
Yeah but that doesn't work in real life, does it? For starters, there's a good chance both sides prioritize the opposite cruiser with the majoirty of the missile salvo. If it comes down to gun fight and, for some reason, the escorts are still afloat, the 2 argentinian DDs easily outgun the 2 RN DDs, which would mean they woudl soon turn to the Belfast.
Again though, that relies on Argentinian conscripts who didn't notice the ship they were escorting being torpedoed outfighting Royal Navy crews...
 
Again though, that relies on Argentinian conscripts who didn't notice the ship they were escorting being torpedoed outfighting Royal Navy crews...
The RN knew all about EXOCET, they had all the inside knowledge on how they worked and how to defeat it. Sheffield's air warfare officer screwed up by not activating Sea Dart or coming to action stations and Atlantic Conveyor was sunk after RN ships correctly deployed their Chaff pattern to decoy the missiles from RN warships, the Argentinan missiles just locked onto the next target they saw which was an unarmed merchant ship. Belfast's escorting destroyers would certainly have been at action stations and would be using CHAFF and other countermeasures.
 
The RN knew all about EXOCET, they had all the inside knowledge on how they worked and how to defeat it. Sheffield's air warfare officer screwed up by not activating Sea Dart or coming to action stations and Atlantic Conveyor was sunk after RN ships correctly deployed their Chaff pattern to decoy the missiles from RN warships, the Argentinan missiles just locked onto the next target they saw which was an unarmed merchant ship. Belfast's escorting destroyers would certainly have been at action stations and would be using CHAFF and other countermeasures.
Note that those were single shots. Here we are talking about the possibilty of volleys...
 
Again though, that relies on Argentinian conscripts who didn't notice the ship they were escorting being torpedoed outfighting Royal Navy crews...
That was an attack by a submarine they had no chance of detecting and no reason to even believe it was there. This would be a multi ship surface action: no hidden enemies here.
 
I've just realised something... we've been focusing so much on Exocet&guns that everyone seems to have forgotten the Type 42 carry a helicopter. Which has Sea Skua missiles.

So that's 2 missile launchers that can fire shots from whatever angle they want, long before the argentine ships even see the RN ships. Not sure if the Sea Lynx could, at this time, carry 4 Skuas, but even 2 would have an efect. If both helis can coordinate their shots to fire at a single DD at the time, they could at least cripple one. Land, reload, go again. The RN ships could stay away untill this dance was done, then approach and volley their Exocets even without radar locks, thanks to the Sea Lynx.
 
Note that those were single shots. Here we are talking about the possibilty of volleys...
Technically they were all two missile salvo's. Glamorgan was hit by a previously unsuspected improvised EXOCET launcher fired from land - the RN didn't know that was even a thing.
 
The RN knew all about EXOCET, they had all the inside knowledge on how they worked and how to defeat it. Sheffield's air warfare officer screwed up by not activating Sea Dart or coming to action stations and Atlantic Conveyor was sunk after RN ships correctly deployed their Chaff pattern to decoy the missiles from RN warships, the Argentinan missiles just locked onto the next target they saw which was an unarmed merchant ship. Belfast's escorting destroyers would certainly have been at action stations and would be using CHAFF and other countermeasures.

Ah yes, suffering... five hits out of seven missiles launched inspires an undying confidence in the ability of the Royal Navy to deal with sea skimming ASMs in this scenario. Even if we ignore Conveyor a 42% hit rate equals three hits from the Escort Destroyer's Exocets, potentially enough to sink or cripple the entire British force. Of course, the same applies to the British ASM's as well...
 
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Ah yes, suffering... five hits out of seven missiles launched inspires an undying confidence in the ability of the Royal Navy to deal with sea skimming ASMs in this scenario. Even if we ignore Conveyor a 42% hit rate equals three hits from the Escort Destroyer's Exocets, potentially enough to sink or cripple the entire British force. Of course, the same applies to the British ASM's as well...
Which is why I suggested trading a Type 42 for a Type 22. Those Seawolfs are the only SAM that can counter an Exocet.
 
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