As I rightly remember the first sealord tells Maggie 'if there is to be an escalation it's better that we start it ' so hitting the mainland Argentina would be protecting the fleet
 
As I rightly remember the first sealord tells Maggie 'if there is to be an escalation it's better that we start it ' so hitting the mainland Argentina would be protecting the fleet

Military, yes. Politically, it's always better to appear as the injured party. Which is why the whole "omg Belgrano murder" crap still holds to this day... despite being fully justitfied military.
 
The officer wore a Chilean military uniform with the rank of captain but did not seem to have any actual purpose within the centre and unlike the offer personnel in the room wore no name tag or unit flashes. He was noticeable in that he hardly ever spoke to any of the other people in the room and seemed to spend most of his time just observing. Whenever he did speak it was nearly always to another officer who always accompanied him and often spoke seemingly on his behalf. The air force colonel who was in charge of the operations room seemed to either ignore him completely or even sometimes give hints of a possible resentment of his presence. The only time this man had ever spoken to one of the enlisted men had been a very brief conversation on the 21st when information had started to come in from the various radar stations that indicated a large number of aircraft taking off from Argentine air bases. The enlisted man recalled that while this man had spoken in excellent Spanish his accent was somewhat unusual and the enlisted man had been unable to place which part of the country this man had originated from based upon his accent. The officer had also seemed to be unfamiliar with some of the Chilean military words.

"I say, hombres, very nice trabajo. Carry out the bueno servico!"
 
Military, yes. Politically, it's always better to appear as the injured party. Which is why the whole "omg Belgrano murder" crap still holds to this day... despite being fully justitfied military.

A one off strike on the Rio grande airbase to suppress the super etende squadron. Who are capable of launching exocets which are ship killers
 
I don't understand why the Phantoms are calling Fox One at such short range - Skyflash has a range of fifty plus NM (75 KM) - wiki is not your friend here! Aside from true 'Look down, shoot down / up' capability & ECCM an order of magnitude better than contemporary Sparrows, the Hoopoe motor provides much, much longer range than that of AIM-7E/F.

The AWG-11 on the FG.1 is quite capable of locking on to a fighter sized target at over sixty miles - it's also designed specifically for use over water, too.

Great update, though.
 
I know the Skyflash was a good missile but 6 kills from 8 missiles seems like a high Pk even if the Argies are coming straight and dumb and don't have much in the way of ECM.

Beyond that, keep up the good work.
 
I know the Skyflash was a good missile but 6 kills from 8 missiles seems like a high Pk even if the Argies are coming straight and dumb and don't have much in the way of ECM.

Seems eminently reasonable to me. I discussed in an earlier post how AIM-7M / P (both of which use lessons drawn from Skyflash, yet still not quite matching it in capability) had achieved around 70 % in GW I, so a Pk of 75% doesn't seem unreasonable - particularly for targets that won't be maneuvering (because the're not going to have the warning) & are over open ocean until the mx enter the terminal phase.
 
Seems eminently reasonable to me. I discussed in an earlier post how AIM-7M / P (both of which use lessons drawn from Skyflash, yet still not quite matching it in capability) had achieved around 70 % in GW I, so a Pk of 75% doesn't seem unreasonable - particularly for targets that won't be maneuvering (because the're not going to have the warning) & are over open ocean until the mx enter the terminal phase.
In short its a case of sheer bad luck for the Argentinians due to facing planes a little more advanced and with better missiles than they can get hold of.

Still going to be a messy fight to come in any case.
 
if the average hit ratio for a missile is say 75% then sometimes to maintain that average 100% of launches will hit and sometimes none will hit. So for the point of this timeline six out of Eight is plausible, especially if it is balanced by more misses later. If Sky flash has a range of 50Nm/75km then it is a pity that there is not a way to hang a few on the Gannets, If their radars were compatible. It might be complete stupidity on my part but having you AEW aircraft able to self defend at long range seems like a good idea. They do not venture onto harms way bit if harms comes their way then at least they can bite back.
 
One thing to remember about Skyflash is that it was only semi-active - it needed the fighter's radar to keep 'painting' the target until engagement. That means that, depending on the various speeds/altitudes/angles involved, it can sometimes be better to fire at shorter range, sometimes at longer range. Numbers involved also make a difference. If you're outnumbered, it's better to raise the chance of a successful shot by firing at closer range - the enemy then has less chance of manoeuvring out of the missile's engagement envelope. 45km (22-ish nm) does seem a bit close - I'd have expected 25-30nm (50-60km), but it's not implausible.
The need for the missile to be supported also answers the question about why not mount them on the Gannets - the Gannet's radar, like all other non-fighter radars, is not able to 'support' the missile - and it would not be a simple tweak to enable that!
As an aside (sort of), the concept of self-defence missiles for large aircraft was considered. The Nimrod MR2 gained the moniker 'largest fighter in the world' after it was fitted with Sidewinder missiles during the OTL Falklands conflict.
 

Ramontxo

Donor
Also the Argentinian Mirages were modified when buy by taking their radar illumination warning off for a question of cost (the saving being less than expected as Dassault work in modifying the aircrafts was not cheap)
 
Also the Argentinian Mirages were modified when buy by taking their radar illumination warning off for a question of cost (the saving being less than expected as Dassault work in modifying the aircrafts was not cheap)
How dumb can you get? Sure lets take off the thing that telks our pilots a missile is coming up their tailpipe and they need to take evasive action right bleeding now. ..
 
How dumb can you get? Sure lets take off the thing that telks our pilots a missile is coming up their tailpipe and they need to take evasive action right bleeding now. ..

Its almost as if they were not expecting to take on a first tier NATO member flying Phantom and only shotgun armed natives :eek:
 
Its almost as if they were not expecting to take on a first tier NATO member flying Phantom and only shotgun armed natives :eek:
The Mirage is an interceptor, its kind of in the job description it will be facing other jets and many South American nations had upgraded to simular grades of fighters by that point. Surely you needed some warning even if its only for short range weapons?
 
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