Argentina eyes up laser death cannon testbed warship

Re: .Sarcasm, I take it?

Moreover, Britain has no anti-ship missiles on those (or any other) aeroplanes.

I guess the only real deterrent available today would be the UK saying that there's a submarine in the area (and the Argentinians not having the capability to find out if it's true or not).

Re: .Sarcasm, I take it?

"I doubt the RN has the reliable operating capability now to defend the Falklands"

One Astute class submarine could destroy the dozen or so Argentinian warships capable of going to sea before they got there, without being seen.

Re: .Sarcasm, I take it?

Defend the Falklands? We're handing them to Argentina to get entry in to the WTO

"I doubt the RN has the reliable operating capability...."

Aware that the RN has it's foibles and limitations (aircraft carriers without jets, destroyers that dont like hot weather etc). But if the RN is defending the falklands from argentina, then my mortgage is on the RN. From what I can see, the offensive capability of the Argentines has gone dramatically backwards since 1982. I know the RN is a lot smaller now, but it's not trying to struggle by with the same aging kit, like ARG are. I'm also fairly sure the Argentines aren't quite a gung-ho as the Junta was back then. Not gonna happen.

Re: “Islas Malvinas” (the unofficial, Argentine, name of the Falklands)

The official name of the place is the Falkland Islands. Because that's what the people who live there call it. See official government website.

Not that there's anything wrong with calling them different things in different languages. The French named them les iles de Malouines - which is apparently where the spanish Malvinas originates.

The UN may have a convention on the name to smooth over pointless awkwardness, and that's all fine and dandy, but the official name is what the democratically accountable government says it is.

It's almost an excellent government too. They use Reg standard units, in describing the islands as about half the size of Wales. But also lose marks for daring to deviate from them by saying they're also about the same size as Conneticut. I wasn't aware that Conneticut was anyone's standard area. I thought people from the US judged things in relation to the size of Texas?

Re: interesting name leads to interesting subject

But how important is Puerto Rico to the greater American scheme of things. At least Alaska is full of natural resources and Hawaii, apart from being a tourist hotspot, is also a strategic location for Pacific naval operations, so the US has good reason to keep both under wraps. What can Puerto Rico offer in that end?

Re: interesting name leads to interesting subject

USS Ponce

I instantly thought of the pub scene from Withnail & I and can't get past it.

USS '<u>perfumed</u>' Ponce

Re: interesting name leads to interesting subject

Puerto Rico have had several referenda on fully joining the US, but so far have voted not to. That's about half of what I know about politics in Puerto Rico though, so I've no idea why.

Re: interesting name leads to interesting subject

Puerto Rico is closer to core US than two of those smaller populated states..

And Cuba is much closer than Puerto Rico.

Re: The Ponce would be far from the first former US warship acquired by Argentina.

Santa Fe, as Catfish became, was shot up by an assortment of British helicopters and took an AS12 missile to the hull. The Lynx failing to hit with torpedo must have been cause for concern. Though Sea Skuas from Lynxes did hit Alferez Sobal (formerly Salish)

Re: The Ponce would be far from the first former US warship acquired by Argentina.

Maybe the US Navy could add "two destroyers, slightly damaged, need some repairs and new paint, but still afloat"....

Re: The Ponce would be far from the first former US warship acquired by Argentina.

Argentina got two Brooklyn class ex-USN light cruisers in the early 1950's, but they'd retired one by the time of the Falklands War.

Likewise Brazil and Chile also got two each as part of the "balance of power".

Re: Time For Argentina to Move on and Drop the Sovereignty Claim

I'm amazed by the 8 downvotes. They really don't have any kind of valid claim - and even if they did it's not like there are any people living (or dead) who have claims to any land there. Given that the islands were uninhabited when colonised by the French, British and Spanish in a sort of imperial game of musical-chairs-with-gunboats.

They're a few hundred miles of the coast of Argentina, so it's not like they're somehow "so close by they're automatically ours". Otherwise France would be British-owned. Although I admit that we were a bit slow on the uptake there and only stopped officially claiming it sometime around 1800. George III was the last monarch crowned King of France, Mary I was the last monarch to hold Calais - and even by then it was just a final reminder of when Henry V might have kept France, if he'd lived.

Re: Operation Malvinas

Self-Determination is applicable to ALL Non-Self-Governing Territories and is now (in the light of the East Timor Judgment), regarded as 'jus cogens' (compelling law). It would be illegal to hand over any NSGT to another state without the consent of the inhabitants. Comrade Corbyn 'favours' a sovereignty-share deal (illegal) while his own Labour Party supports the Islanders democratic and human rights.

Re: Operation Malvinas

> "Yup, Argentina want the islands and want them bad"

No, they don't, now that Kirchner is out of office it's actually on it's way to becoming a functional member of the first world.

"Within 24h of any invasion threat, a crew could be flown in and have them operational."

That's not true, unless you're willing to pay maintenance crews permanently to keep the vessels in order, and crews paid permanently to stay in date on the vessels. At which point, you've basically just created full-time ships with full-time crews.

The US Navy has a "mothball fleet" of reserve ships, some of them can be reactivated "quickly enough" if needed - but maintaining ships and their systems has a cost anyway.

What you suggest is more alike the older ships often assigned to "colonial" duties in the late XIX/early XX century, because no enemy with more modern or better armed ships was expected. Anyway, I don't believe the Admiralty believes the risk of a new attack to to Falklands so real it needs such a fleet.

Anyway, a ship can't be moored and left there - it still needs a crew for maintenance. And an operative crew needs to be continuously trained on ship operations to be effective if attacked (or you risk to hit the first cargo you encounter).

We don't have any land based antiship missiles in service, unfortunately as they are a lot cheaper for defending a coastline than a warship. Or any air launched ones either since Sea Eagle was withdrawn.

Modern equivalent

Look up "extended readiness". This is basically where one or more ships of a class are kept ticking over for commissioning at notice.

One of the Albion class Landing Craft Docks (the uk equivalent of the Ponce) is currently in this state, as will our second Aircraft Carrier be when it's built.

This is basically a boondoggle and means they will be unavailable for anything short of a crash re-armament program for a non-nuclear WW3.

"If our old warships are good enough for other navies when they reach the end of their expected life, why aren't they good enough for us to keep in reserve?"

Too expensive to keep them maintained. The countries that are buying these clapped-out old ships either have loads of cheap labour to keep them running, or they have a notional navy for prestige reasons so they don't care if the ships don't work very well.

You must be new here.

Re: Lasers

The Argentine Air Force knows this, having been on the receiving end of the Royal Navy attempts.

These days banned by the UN. Not that that appears to be stopping anyone (both the US and Russia are alleged to have used them).

Re: Wasn't Ocean scrapped to save money?

Not yet. She's due to be decommissioned next year.

Re: Small inaccuracy

I think hes thinking of the the LPDs like HMS Albion or HMS Bulwark