Boat Scale Models Reviews

Archive for September, 2010

Situated on a large urban renewal site devoted to culture and leisure, Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie was completed in 1986 with a mandate to educate visitors about science and technology. Designed by the architect Adrien Fainsilber and based on five themes, water and earth, the universe, industry, communication, and man and health, the Cité has welcomed just about 40 million visitors since it first opened its doors to the public on 13 March 1986, coinciding with the arrival of Halley’s Comet. Located in the Parc de la Villette, which was formerly a enormous abattoir, covering an area of 55 hectares, this highly-innovative complex is one of the biggest scientific and cultural centers in the world and is made up of several individual sites.

Explora offers visitors activities such as piloting an aero plane or traveling through the human body; the Géode is a large geodesic dome containing a 1000 sq metre screen and Cinaxe is a simulator fitted with equipment used to train airline pilots. For children, the Cité des Enfants teaches them how to make a TV show, whilst the Exposition Électricité offers them a chance to learn how electricity is supplied. One can find a 400-tonne submarine in the Submarine Argonaute area, which was the pride of the French Navy during the 1950s and was installed at the Cité in 1989. New exhibitions include L’homme et les Gènes show, it is an introduction to the world of genes. Poussieres d’Étoiles tells the story of the birth of the Universe through giant laser shows and musical creations.

It is located on an impressive modern site in northeastern Paris called the Parc de la Villette. The ‘Parc’ is a unique area of culture and leisure in Paris. Offering a wide variety of exhibitions and shows, this cultural crossroads is also a lovely park, with gardens surrounding the Ourcq canal. La cites des Sciences et de l’Industrie is located at the top of the park, and is a masterpiece of modern architecture.

Parc de la Villette is the setting for this huge science museum best known for its Géode dome and impressive 180-degree cinema. Natural and scientific phenomena are explained with the help of exhibitions in an area specially designed with kids in mind. Children aged three and over can visit a real submarine, the Argonaute, and find out how it works; temporary exhibitions are organized in Espace Explora. Admission to La Cité des Métiers resource centre and the children’s multimedia library is free.

The space section is also well worth visiting, with its scale models of the Ariane space launchers, where one can experience weightlessness at first hand. There is even a real submarine in the grounds – the 400-tonne Argonaute came to rest at La Cité des Sciences in 1989 and has been restored to its former glory on dry land. The Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie is one of the largest science museums in the world, visited by many every year.

All the conveniences are nearby; with playgrounds for children, la grande halle – a giant hall for exhibitions and shows, the national conservatory of music and dance, and the “folies” – small red buildings housing mini-exhibits and snack bars.

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• Aeroplane – We Can’t Fly –

  State Magazine | Music | News | Reviews | Live

• Aeroplane / We Can’t Fly [2010] | ●●●

When I was a business school student, veterans of the U.S. nuclear submarine fleet surrounded me. These men were mature beyond their years and happy to be verbally jousting in the relatively unconfined, sunny arena of a graduate-school classroom. The submariners did well as students, and employers eagerly competed to hire them.

Why would such naval service be a good background for a business career? One classmate explained it this way, “If you can perform well with other men in a confined area under dangerous conditions for months at a time, you can easily meet any challenge that a business will throw at you.”

If every submariner had learned that lesson, the American missile fleet would soon be decimated by seamen headed for business schools and new careers with higher income potential.

Over the years since then, I’ve wondered about other business career benefits that might flow from the naval experiences of those who didn’t serve on submarines. For instance, one of my college roommates became a shipboard supply officer in the U.S. Navy and attended business school after his enlistment was up. He now heads a successful company he founded that makes custom rubber components for original equipment manufacturers. In addition, one of my favorite bosses was a retired naval officer.

In 2005, those conjectures steered me in a new direction after I had the pleasure of being an online advisor to an outstanding officer in the Hellenic (Greek) Navy, Commander Papantoniou, who was studying for an MBA degree in Strategic Management. From his first assignment, I knew that Commander Papantoniou was an extraordinary business student.

While many new graduate students seek to do the least and gain the highest grade, Commander Papantoniou wanted to learn the most and was prepared to go well beyond the assignment to be sure that he squeezed every bit of value out of his studies. In the process, he displayed astonishing interest in details that most people miss.

Of course, there’s a reason for that attention to detail and doing the most: A ship can be sunk by a single mistake. Naturally, a naval officer would have to be detail oriented and able to use good judgment to advance very far in that service.

There was a bigger surprise. Commander Papantoniou’s imagination was outstanding in performing his assignments. One of my favorite courses to teach is based on a book I wrote about making breakthrough improvements in performance. Commander Papantoniou did his finest work in that course, identifying a way to take a simple administrative procedure and make it dozens of times faster and much less costly to perform.

I had a unique perspective to use in examining his course performance. Another brilliant student had completed a similar assignment for a different organization a few months earlier. That other student’s work was so effective that I still use it as an example. Commander Papantoniou, however, found a solution that was 96 percent less costly to use than my other brilliant student had discovered. Such a breakthrough made it seem the Commander was taking the course for the second time.

In the navy, an officer has to be continually prepared to outperform a deadly enemy and deal with the extreme conditions that nature can bring. The consequences of a mistake almost always involve potential loss of life and severe injuries, and many millions of dollars are at risk. Carrying that heavy responsibility provides a clear focus that makes finding operating improvements a breeze by comparison.

There’s also a well-established hierarchy in the navy based on centuries of experience in assessing the qualities that lead to success. Anyone who prospers in such an environment has resources for achievement that academic screening and evaluation usually don’t measure.

I asked Commander Papantoniou about my observations. Here’s what he said:

“A naval officer starts training in leadership very young, from the age of 18 or 19. An officer learns to live in a strict hierarchy. A naval officer climbs the hierarchy step by step, always from the stairways and not from the elevator.

“The training is a perfect combination of theory and continuous practice, the essential difference from someone who has only a theoretical background by graduating from a civilian university. Additionally, a naval officer has the opportunities to face very different or difficult cases, and people in a variety of situations. The officer has to find the best solutions, perfect balance and discipline, and give motivation to the crew to give their best.

“I believe that an ex-naval officer is different and maybe a better business leader because of the way that leadership aboard a ship differs from ordinary leadership roles. The sea gives people a different mentality and influences their way of thinking and leadership. Shipboard officers are open-minded, more adaptive, and more flexible than other officers.”

But earning an MBA online was just the beginning. Commander Papantoniou decided to study for a Certificate of Specialization in strategic management from Greece’s leading university and graduated first in his class. Then Commander Papantoniou enrolled in a second MBA program to earn a degree in Executive Management.

Commander Papantoniou next decided to retire from the Hellenic Navy with the rank of captain, an alternative that he had been considering before he started his business studies. What would he do next to use all of this new knowledge?

One of the largest, oldest, and most respected companies in the Hellenic marine industry soon hired Captain Papantoniou to be its Operations Manager. How’s that for starting near the top?

Not satisfied with what he knew about business, Captain Papantoniou enrolled in an online program to study for a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree, emphasizing change management and leadership. He planned to apply his new learning to the operations he headed. Once again, I had the good fortune to be his advisor.

With his very first DBA course, Captain Papantoniou identified and put into place a superb new business model that will greatly increase the growth and profitability of his company. I believe that by the time he has earned his doctorate the Hellenic marine industry will have been changed in fundamental ways through his insightful and effective leadership.

I asked Captain Papantoniou to share with me his insights into why online education had been so successful for him. He cited these reasons:

1. You can work at your own pace while continuing your naval career.

2. Costs are affordable.

3. Star professors who have written influential books are available at some online universities, enabling a lot of opportunity for one-on-one learning from the best.

4. You have the flexibility to design your own program and apply it to what interests you.

5. If your priority is to learn, there’s no better way to go.

Captain Papantoniou is still a relatively young man. After he completes the DBA, will even more degrees be in his future? Who knows? But I can say for sure that he will always be finding great ways to learn so that he can accomplish more.

What are the lessons for naval officers? According to Captain Papantoniou, they should:

1. Study online to check their interest in other careers.

2. Use online education to add knowledge that can provide career alternatives based on their interests.

3. Get practical support for new careers through on-going online studies.

Naval officers, welcome aboard the online study ship where you can gain many new leadership opportunities!

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• College Women With Heavy Roommates Gain Less Weight Freshman Year – AOL Health
• Military police – Sheet Metal Fabrication Manufacturer – Sheet Metal Parts Supplier | MW2Tips.com
• College Women With Heavy Roommates Gain Less Weight Freshman Year – AOL Health | College Education, Books and Loans

Image taken on 2010-05-26 01:26:37 by wallyg.

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Image taken on 2010-05-26 06:26:45 by wallyg.

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I. Naval Air Station Wildwood 

                Southern New Jersey, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Delaware River, had been inextricably tied to naval aviation with several air stations during World War II.  The largest, and therefore most important, had been Naval Air Station Wildwood.

                Tracing its origins to President Roosevelt, who had used New Deal funds to construct civilian airports under the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) for military conversion in the event of war, Naval Air Station Wildwood had been sparked by the emerging need for a pilot training base to protect the Atlantic seaboard from German submarines which had targeted US supply ships traveling to Britain.  Nazi Germany, having already captured France in June of 1942, had become an increasing threat.

                In Southern New Jersey, the US Coast Guard transferred its station, which had been originally built as a World War I naval base in 1917, to the Navy, which had then commissioned it Naval Air Station Cape May in September of 1940 and from which observation and scout squadron training had subsequently been conducted.

                But the urgency for additional facilities had heightened the following year when the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, alerting of the need for naval aircraft and proficient dive-bomber pilots.  The Cape May base had been pitifully inadequate for this purpose, prompting a series of surveys in Lower Township for additional land.

                An initial 500 acres, leased for $1.00 from Cape May County for later conversion to civilian use, had resulted in March, 1942 governmental construction bids, and workmen, under the direction of the Army Corps of Engineers, commenced the arduous deforestation process by clearing trees and filling in swamps to prepare land for a fighting squadron training base in Rio Grande.  Although the construction effort had been successful, its purpose had not been: the Army ultimately elected to establish a similar facility some 40 miles north, in Millville, abandoning the project.

                The cleared, 500-acre area, with potential application as an auxiliary field for the inadequately-sized Cape May Naval Air Station, had still been 400 acres short of the Navy’s stipulated 900-acre requirement, and this had only been remedied by the Cape May County Board of Chosen Freeholders’ emergency resolution authorizing an additional $15,000 for land acquisition.  The win-win expenditure had been perceived as providing both the Navy with the needed land for its base and the county with the needed employment to arrest it from its economic fall into Depression’s quicksand, although the need for such a facility had been clearly demonstrated by the concurrent Battle of the Coral Sea in May and the Battle of Midway in June, victories only sustainable with the qualified bases where pilots could be trained.  In fact, the number of such pilots had been estimated as 20,000.  The proposed Rio Grande base, it had been argued, would be crucial to sustaining naval aviation’s imprint in the Pacific.

                Resultantly, the Navy, leasing the land from the county and appropriating $500,000 for the new airfield, commenced construction in October of 1942, subsequently completing one 4,000-foot runway, three 5,000-foot runways, a control tower, hangars, barracks, an operations building, a mess hall, a water supply station, a steam heating plant, a sewage system, and roads, providing employment for 362 local civilians.

The base, adopting its name from the nearest post office, had been commissioned “Naval Air Station Rio Grande” on April 1, 1943, and Lieutenant Commander Morris Ruggles Brownell, Jr. had assumed command of it, but early confusion with the identically-named city in Texas had resulted in its redesignation as “Naval Air Station Wildwood” on June 17, a name hitherto only associated with a southern New Jersey beach resort.  Supplemented by Woodbine Auxiliary Airfield, which had opened two months later, in August, and a facility in Delaware, the new naval air station met the Navy’s capacity needs and enabled it to concentrate dive-bombing pilot training at the new field.  It had also operated in conjunction with Naval Air Stations Cape May and Atlantic City.

                Composite Squadron Thirty (VC-30) of Carrier Air Group 30 (CAG30) had been the first to have been commissioned by the Navy at its new facility in April of 1943 for the USS Monterey, although the squadron’s size had initially necessitated the use of eight Westward huts and tents and hotels in Wildwood for 150 of its pilots until base facility construction had been completed.

                The initially-combined Bombing Squadron Fourteen and Fifteen (VB-14 and VB-15), training under the “Fleet Air Detachment Wildwood Operation Plan for the Defense of the Eastern Sea Frontier” in Douglas SDB Dauntless aircraft, practiced squadron flying, individual bombing practice, diving, navigation, glide bombing, fixed gunnery, free gunnery, instrument night flying, and anti-submarine surface strafing. 

II. Naval Air Station Wildwood Aircraft 

                Instrumental to Naval Air Station Wildwood and the Navy’s combat strategy in the Pacific had been the dive-bomber aircraft, which provided precision attacks of rapidly moving targets at steep descent angles.  Such designs, of the low-wing, metal airframe type usually powered by a single piston engine, had been capable of operating from aircraft carriers with arrester hook provision and had been equipped with dive brakes, such as split flaps, to prohibit excessive, unrecoverable profiles, limit airframe stress, and increase the maneuver’s duration to improve the accuracy, aim, and trajectory of the bomb itself, which had typically been carried on a hinged bomb rack.  After its release, it had to be projected downward, with sufficient clearance from the propeller arc to avoid interference.

                The Douglas SBD Dauntless, the first such dive-bomber to be deployed at the station, had been the Navy’s standard, ship-borne aircraft responsible for several decisive victories in the Pacific.  Based upon the Northrop BT-1, a scout and dive-bomber, it had been given life as the XBT-1 when the Navy had ordered a single prototype.  First flying in this form on August 19, 1935, the aircraft, powered by a 700-hp Pratt and Whitney R-1535-66 Twin Wasp Junior two-row radial engine, had featured a low wing; split flaps; aftward, semi-retractable main wheels stored in underwing fairings; and a fixed tailwheel, but the airframe, considered underpowered, had subsequently been refitted with uprated, 825-hp R-1535-94 engines in December, and the split flaps had been replaced with the holed type to rectify handling characteristics.

                The subsequent XBT-2, significantly modified after Douglas had acquired Northrop, featured a tandemly arranged, forward-facing pilot and rearward-facing, gunner/radio operator; fabric-covered ailerons, elevators, and rudders; two .50-caliber Browning machine guns installed in the nose cowling and synchronized to fire through the propeller arc; an under-fuselage, swinging cradle release-mounted, 1,600-pound bomb; and two underwing, 100-pound bomb pylons.  Powered by a 1,000-hp, nine-cylinder, air-cooled Wright Cyclone R-1820-32 radial engine which drove a three-bladed, adjustable-pitch, spinner-equipped propeller, the aircraft stored fuel in two 90-gallon, wing integral tanks, four wing center section tanks totaling 210 gallons; and a single, 15-gallon auxiliary fuel tank. 

                The design, redesignated SBD-1 under the Douglas model scheme, had entered service with the Marines’ VMB-2 Squadron in 1940 and the Navy had equally operated 57 of the type.

                Despite its extensive improvement program, it had still lacked sufficient range and had been devoid of armor protection, resulting in the SBD-2, which had featured a 100-gallon fuel capacity increase and revised ammunition.  It had entered service with the Navy with the 58th airframe.

                The succeeding SBD-3 had addressed several earlier deficiencies by introducing a still larger fuel capacity, self-sealing fuel tanks, crew and armor protection, a bullet-proof windshield, a Wright Cyclone R-1820-52 engine, and modified cowling.

                The SBD-4 had featured a hydromatic propeller and replaced the previous 12-volt electrical system with a 24-volt one, while the SBD-5, the most numerically produced version, had been built at Douglas’ new Tulsa, Oklahoma, factory.  Featuring a 33-foot overall length and a 41.6-foot wingspan, the 1,200-hp Pratt and Whitney R-1820-66–powered aircraft had a 10,855-pound maximum take off weight and a 255-mph maximum speed.  It had had a 770-mile range.

                The final version, the SBD-6, had featured the most capable powerplant, at a 1,350-hp rating, and the largest fuel capacity.

                The Douglas SBD Dauntless had been instrumental in numerous Pacific theatre victories.  In the Battle of Midway, for example, which had occurred on June 4, 1942, the type had destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers, sank a heavy cruiser, and severely damaged another, while it sank the Ryugo in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons.  In the Battle of Guadalcanal, which had taken place between November 12 and 15 of that year, it had destroyed nine transports and sank the cruiser Kinugasa, ending its career as a carrier-borne aircraft two years later on June 20, 1944 with victories against the Japanese Mobile Fleet in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

                During initial Douglas Dauntless training at Naval Air Station Wildwood, however, it had not been so victorious, with mounting casualties of the very pilots who had trained in them because of poor handling characteristic-created accidents, prompting a replacement trainer.

                That replacement appeared in the form of the Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, whose instability, structural weakness, and inferior design had hardly been synonymous with “improvement.”

                Based upon the antiquated biplane design of the 1930s intended for dive-bombing maneuvers, the aircraft had been considerably modernized when the Navy had submitted specifications in 1938 for a carrier-based scout bomber accommodating two crew members and able to internally carry 1,000 pounds of bombs over long ranges.

                The resultant prototype, designated XSBC2C-1, had first taken to the skies on December 18, 1940, but had been structurally weak and had demonstrated poor handling characteristics, sustaining engine failure two months later on February 8 during an approach and crashing.  The US military, intending to target performance deficiencies on production aircraft, had already ordered the type, and an initial series of redesigns, entailing a longer fuselage, a larger tail, increased armor, installation of an autopilot, and self-sealing fuel tanks, had resulted in an airplane which bore little resemblance to its earlier iteration.

The new version, first flying on October 20, 1941, sustained in-flight structural failure during a test flight two months later, on December 21, forcing its pilot to parachute to safety, and during demonstrations of the first six production aircraft, it had been determined that the 40-percent gross weight increase, from the 7,122 pounds of the initial version to the 10,220 pounds of the current one, had been dangerously excessive.

                The aircraft, appearing in its initial SB2C-1 guise, had been an all-metal, mid-wing monoplane powered by a single, 14-cylinder, air-cooled, two-row, Double Wasp, 1,700-hp Wright R-2600-8 piston engine which drove a three-bladed propeller.  The wings, which folded to facilitate aircraft carrier storage, featured inboard, split flaps for dive-bombing profiles and outboard ailerons and their fuel tanks had been self-sealing.  Crew had been accommodated in fore and aft, greenhouse-style canopy cockpits, and the tail-dragging configuration had sported an under-fuselage, stinger-type-arresting hook.  Armament had included four 12.7-mm, wing-installed Browning machine guns, a 1,000-pound bomb bay-stored bomb, and a flexible mount in the rear cockpit.

                All of the 200 SB2C-1s built had been used for pilot training.

                The succeeding SB2C-1C, of which 778 had been produced, had featured additional fuel tankage and had been the first to enter combat, its initial raid targeting the Japanese stronghold of Rabaul on November 11, but the design had been woefully underpowered.

                The singularly-produced SB2C-2 had been intended for amphibian operation with floats, while the SB2C-3, attempting to rectify the basic design’s power deficiency had been equipped with a four-bladed Curtiss Electric propeller run by a 1,900-hp R-2600-20 engine.  Entering service in 1944, the type had enjoyed a considerable production run, of 1,112.

                The SB2C-4, the most extensively produced variant with 2,045 airframes, had featured a 36.8-foot overall length and a 49.9-foot wingspan, whose perforated flaps had minimized dive-induced buffeting.  Powered by the previous version’s R-2600-20 engine, the 16,616-pound fighter, armed with two wing-mounted, 20-mm cannons; two aft cockpit-installed, 7.62-mm machine guns; and fuselage bay and underwing rack-carried, 2,000-pound bombs; could achieve a maximum speed of 295 mph and cover up to 1,165 miles.

                The SB2C-5, the last major variant to have been built, had introduced a fuel capacity increase.  Nine hundred seventy had been produced.

                Navy Squadron VB-17, based on the aircraft carrier Bunker Hill, had been the first to successfully operate the SB2C Helldiver, launching 23 aircraft, divided into six, four-unit divisions, in its first major combat campaign in November of 1943.

                During the subsequent four-month period, the type conducted dive-bombing missions to Tarawaya, Nauru, New Zealand, Truk, and the Marshall Islands, and by June of the following year, Helldiver fleets had been based on the five aircraft carriers of Bunker Hill, Essex, Hornet, Wasp, and Yorktown.  Four months later this number had increased to eight.

                Operating with TBM Avengers, the SB2Cs had succeeded in sinking the super battleship, Musashi, and later claimed 44 air-to-air victories, having achieved more shipping kills than any other aircraft type.

                Although the Helldiver had initially been plagued with an antiquated heritage and numerous design deficiencies, progressively introduced modifications had rendered it an effective dive-bomber which had been instrumental in many Pacific theatre victories.

                As a solution for Naval Air Station Wildwood’s accident rate, however, it had only served to produce the opposite effect: with the introduction of the aircraft to the training program, the number of pilot training fatalities had increased!

                The Combined Bombing Squadron Fifty-Two (VC-52), arriving at the station in September of 1943, commenced gunnery and torpedo training with the base’s third major carrier-based fighter, the Grumman TBF-1 Avenger.

                Sparked by the Navy’s requirements for a powerful torpedo bomber with a 300-mph speed, a 1,000-mile range with a maximum 2,000-pound payload, a 30,000-foot service ceiling, and an internal weapons bay, the aircraft, designated XTBF-1 and designed by Grumman’s Iron Works, had appeared with a rugged fuselage and a Wright 14-cylinder, 1,700-hp, double row radial R-2600-8 engine.  Its wings, whose large area had resulted in simplistic flying characteristics, had folded flat against the airframe in order to reduce required carrier storage space, and its armament had consisted of three .30-caliber machine guns, one of which had been mounted on the nose and fired through the propeller arc, one of which had been located in the belly and fired rearward, and one of which had been installed as a rear gunner turret.  Because of its mid-wing mounting, sufficient internal space had been created to store a 2,000-pound torpedo, four 500-pound bombs, or additional fuel, and the three-person crew had encompassed the pilot, the rear gunner, and the bombardier/belly gunner.

                The first production aircraft, designated TBF-1, had first flown on August 1, 1941, and the insatiable need for this very capable fighter had required additional manufacturing capability in the form of a General Motors production line.  So manufactured, it had been designated TBM-1, and had first appeared in this guise in late-1942.

                The modified TBF-1C, with fuel tank provision in the bomb bay, as well as two wing integral tanks, had increased capacity from 335 to 726 gallons, resulting in a coincident range increase, and the single, .30-caliber machine gun had been replaced by two, .50-caliber, wing-mounted units, as well as an additional one for the turret.  The General Motors-manufactured counterpart had been designated TBM-1C.

                The ultimate, and numerically most produced, variant, the TBM-3, had featured a 40-foot, 11.5-inch overall length and a 54.2-foot wingspan.  Powered by a 1,900-hp Wright R-2600-20 engine, the aircraft, used for reconnaissance, scouting, and torpedo and glide bombing, had been equipped with a forward-facing, dorsal and ventral machine gun, as well as wing hard points for rockets or drop tanks.  With a 17,895-pound gross weight, it could climb at 2,060 feet-per-minute, cruise at a maximum, 276-mph speed, and fly 1,000-mile sorties.  Some 4,657 had been produced.

                Although only six Grumman TBF Avengers had been delivered in time for the June 4, 1942 Battle of Midway, five had been destroyed in two separate missions, while the sixth had succeeded in dropping its torpedo before returning to base with little more than its trim tab to provide longitudinal control.

                Two months later, on August 24, 26 aircraft had been launched from the Saratoga and Enterprise carriers near the Solomon Islands, sinking the light carrier Ryugo on the second of four strikes with a torpedo.

                And yet three months later, in November, the 37,000-ton Hiei, leading Japanese naval forces, had been destroyed after multiple strikes by Avengers in the Battle of Guadalcanal.

                In the North Atlantic, the type, operating from the USS Bogue, had destroyed some 30 submarines and ripped a cavernous hole in the Japanese transport, I-52.  

                One of the most famous Avenger pilots, George H. W. Bush, had been shot down on September 2, 1944 over Chichi Jima after take off from the USS San Jacinto, although he had successfully parachuted to safety.

                Two months later, the aircraft had been instrumental in sinking the Japanese battleship, Musashi, in the Battle of the Subuyan Sea.

                The final testament to the type’s ruggedness and torpedo-launching capability had occurred on April 7, 1945 when a fleet of Avengers had destroyed the battleship Yamato and the cruiser Yahagi during their journey to Okinawa.

                Of the 9,836 Avengers produced, 7,546 had been built by General Motors.

                The fourth major aircraft to be used at Naval Air Station Wildwood, perhaps attempting to rectify the earlier SB2C’s flaws, had offered diametrically opposed efficiency and performance.  Its speed and capability, unduplicated by any present fighter, had enabled it to outrun and outclimb any propeller-driven enemy aircraft.  That aircraft had been the Chance-Vought F4U Corsair.

                Based upon the US Navy Bureau of Aeronautics requirement for a high-performance, carrier-based fighter submitted to the Vought-Sikorsky Division of the United Aircraft Corporation, the proposed design, designated the V-166-A, had projected use of the air-cooled, Pratt and Whitney R-1830 Wasp radial engine because of its service reliability, but speed targets could only be met with the much larger XR-2800-4 Double Wasp.  Hitherto the world’s most powerful piston powerplant, it had developed more than 100 hp per cylinder, of which there had been 18, requiring a 13.4-foot diameter, three-bladed Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller.  Although it had required considerable ground clearance because of its size, the very purpose for which a carrier-based fighter had been designed had dictated short, robust landing gear struts to withstand the rapid, often deck-pounding contact and almost instantaneous deceleration required of such an operation.  As a result, these parameters had dictated conflictive design solutions, and engineers had only been able to ensure both sufficient propeller clearance and short enough undercarriage linkage by introducing a gull wing configuration, which had coincidentally improved the aircraft’s aerodynamic characteristics, thereby augmenting higher operational speeds.  It had been the first to feature flushly stored wheels in the retracted mode.

                The Pratt and Whitney engine, whose air inlet had been located in the wing root, closely conformed to the fuselage’s circular shape.

                First flying on May 29, 1940 in prototype form, the aircraft, designated XF4U-1, had been powered by the 1,850-hp R-2800-4 engine and had featured a greenhouse-type cockpit and four .50-caliber Colt-Browning machine guns, two of which had been installed in the nose and two of which had been located in the wings.

                The first production standard version, the F4U-1, had been powered by the 2,000-hp R-2800-8 and had featured exclusively wing-mounted armament.  Taking to the skies on July 31, 1942, it had been the first fighter to exceed 400 mph in level flight.

                Several subsequent versions had been offered.  The F4U-2, for example, had been intended for night missions, while the F4U-3 had been designed for high-altitude operations coupling its 2,000-hp R-2800-16 Double Wasp engine with two Bierman model 1009A turbo-superchargers.  Because of its mechanical difficulties, it had eroded its performance and the variant had been quickly discontinued.

                The F4U-4, a fighter-bomber version, had featured a 33.8-foot overall length and a 41-foot wingspan, which had rendered a 314-square-foot area.  Its 2,100-hp R-2800-18W engine, driving a four-bladed propeller, had been equipped with methanol-water injection, thus producing a five-minute, war-emergency rating of 2,450 hp and resulting in a maximum, 446-mph airspeed.  Its service ceiling had been 41,500 feet.

                The F4U-5, the definitive version, had featured a five-inch longer fuselage; a two-degree, downward-angled engine to increase stability; duralumin outer wing panels and control surfaces to cater to its higher speeds; and a 2,350-hp, dual supercharger-equipped Pratt and Whitney R-2800-32W engine.  The type had a 45,000-foot service ceiling.

                In January of 1945, an additional $500,000 appropriation had enabled Naval Air Station Wildwood to expand and acquire new equipment, including weapons, tactics, link trainers, a 20-mm gunnery school, and a catapult and arresting gear to foster carrier landing practice at its Georgetown Auxiliary Field.  Part of this appropriation had been used to acquire rocket-equipped F4U Corsairs.

                Although the station had originally been designed for 108 officers, 1,200 enlisted men, and 72 aircraft, these numbers had swelled to 443, 2,497, and 154, respectively, and by October of 1944, take offs and landings had peaked at 16,994.  Dive bombing target practice had occurred along the Atlantic and Delaware Bay coasts, while a lighting system at an affiliated field had enabled pilots to perfect night carrier landings.

                When the respective training had been completed, the pilots, now arranges in air groups, had transferred to their assigned aircraft carriers.

III. Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum 

                When victory had closed the doors on World War II’s theaters in 1945, the Navy had discontinued its training programs at Naval Air Station Wildwood and by December of the following year, it had been deactivated, its 109 buildings having been declared surplus.  Of these, 79 had been offered by the War Assets Administration, which had intermittently acquired the property, for off-site use, while several larger structures had been given to Cape May County, which had resumed operation of the station.  Hanger Number One, which had been designed by architect Albert Kahn and whose construction had commenced as far back as October of 1942, had been one of them.

                Formed by bolted wood Pratt trusses subdivided into ten-foot panels at the roof level, the cavernous, 2,558,000-cubic-foot structure had been 290 feet long, 219 feet wide, and 51 feet high, and had been completed with cross-braced vertical supports at its north and south elevations and a center support, which had once provided the division between its two internal bays.  Its east and west elevations had been created by 12 full-height telescoping doors.  Aside from once housing the air station’s aircraft fleet, it had also featured offices, workrooms, and maintenance facilities.

                The hangar, having been used for several post-war purposes, had headquartered United States Overseas Airlines (USOA) between 1949 and 1964, which had provided a global route system with its own fleet and in-flight crews, and it had also briefly housed a banner-towing aircraft company.

                The subsequently abandoned structure, having fallen into a state of disrepair with rotting wood and cracked windows, had been resurrected by Dr. and Mrs. Joseph E. Salvatore in 1997, who had formed the not-for-profit Naval Air Station Wildwood Foundation to save and preserve it as a memorial to the 42 pilots who had lost their lives during their training here between 1943 and 1945, and had subsequently been listed on the New Jersey and National Register of Historic Places at the National Significance Level.  That hangar now houses the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum, which features some 30 aircraft, engines, interactive exhibits provided by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, films, a library, and a gift shop.

                Of the aircraft, the Grumman F4F Wildcat, featuring a three-bladed propeller, folding wings, self-sealing fuel tanks, and six machine guns, had served at the station, and had been the first US-designed fighter capable of downing a German aircraft.

                The Consolidated PBY Catalina, a high-wing, twin-engined, hull-shaped airframe for amphibian operations, had been a patrol bomber armed with .50-caliber Browning machine guns, torpedoes, and depth charges, and had performed multi-role missions, including submarine scouting, search and rescue, and escorting.

                The Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet, built in 1943, had been the most prevalently used World War II primary trainer.  The two-person, single-engine, open cockpit biplane had served as the initial step before pilot transition to heavier, more complex equipment.

                The Vultee BT-13, often the “next step,” had featured tandem controls and instruments, and had also been extensively used.

                The Grumman TBM-3E Avenger, one of the main aircraft based at Naval Air Station Wildwood, is one of only eight designs, like the very hangar which houses it, included on the National Register of Historic Places.

                The T-28C Trojan, which had replaced the AT-6 Texan in Asia and Africa, had provided carrier landing practice, and is equipped with an arresting hook.  It had been used for close air support against enemy ground forces.

                The OE-2 Bird Dog, the military version of the four-seat, twin-bladed, high-wing, tailwheel Cessna 170, had carried white phosphorous target-marking rockets under its wings during the Vietnam War and had also been used as an observation aircraft.

                Several rotary-wing designs are also represented by the museum.  The HH-52A Seaguard amphibious search-and-rescue helicopter, for example, features a hull-like fuselage and outrigger floats and had been stationed on a US Coast Guard ice breaker.

                The AH-1 Cobra, backbone of the US Army’s attack helicopter fleet and a type still in use today, had been equipped with rocket mounts and machine guns.  Formerly part of a Vietnam “Kill Team,” it had trailed a LOACH, which had drawn ground fire.

                The Bell UH-1 Iroquois Huey, the most widely used military helicopter with more than 16,000 having been produced, had been instrumental in numerous missions, such as air assault, command and control, medical evacuation, search-and-rescue, gunship, and transport, particularly during the Vietnam War, although it is still used by the Air Force and the Marines today.

                Jet fighters are also represented.  The Lockheed T-33 Thunderbird, a low-wing, single-engine, dual-seat trainer with a bubble canopy, had progressed from drawing board to airplane in 150 days.  Its F-80C Shooting Star counterpart had served for some 40 years in more than 20 world air forces.  The museum’s example itself had served in the Yugoslavian Air Force.

                The single-engined, delta-winged McDonnell-Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, which had first entered service with the Navy in 1956, could operate from an aircraft carrier, yet deliver nuclear weapons.

                The Grumman F-14 Tomcat features dual engines and vertical tails.  The museum’s F-14A, which had entered service in 1982, had later been upgraded to F-14B standard and had been the first to exceed 7,000 takes offs and landings from the USS John F. Kennedy.

                The Northrop F-5E Tiger II, a lightweight supersonic fighter deployed during the Cold War, had been designed as a response to the Soviet MiG-21.

                Aside from the actual fixed and rotary wing aircraft, the Naval Air Station Wildwood Aviation Museum often hosts fly-ins, veterans’ ceremonies, historical lectures, and school field trips.

                The 1,000-acre Cape May Airport, the museum’s location, is itself of historic value, having evolved from the naval air station.  Sporting two 4,998-foot runways (1-19 and 10-28), six taxiways, and three parking ramps, the general aviation facility annually fields 39,000 movements primarily comprised of corporate, recreational, and charter aircraft, and stands as a testament to the location where fields, once cultivating corn, had later cultivated pilots whose dive-bombing skills had been instrumental in Pacific theatre and ultimate World War II victory.

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Design

Intended role

“The Type 23 class frigate was conceived in the late 1970s as a light anti-submarine frigate whose primary role was to meet the then Soviet nuclear submarine threat in the North Atlantic. This new class was intended to replace the Leander class frigate, which was developed in the 1950s and the Type 21 class frigate, developed in the 1960s, as the backbone of the Royal Navy’s surface ship anti-submarine force. The Type 23 class frigate was not procured as a replacement for the Type 22 frigate.” Though with the reductions in the size of the Navy as a result of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review the last of the Type 23s, the St Albans did replace a Type 22, the Coventry.

The ships were to carry a towed array sonar to detect Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic and carry a Westland Lynx or EHI Merlin helicopter to attack them. It was initially proposed that the frigates would not mount defensive armament. Instead the Sea Wolf missile system was to be carried by Fort Victoria class replenishment oilers, one of which was to support typically four Type 23s. The Forts would also provide servicing facilities for the force’s helicopters; the Type 23 would have facilities only for rearming and refuelling them.

Evolution

As a result of lessons learned from the Falklands War, the design grew in size and complexity to encompass the Vertical Launch Sea Wolf (VLS) system with an extra tracking system as a defence against low-flying aircraft and sea-skimming anti-ship missiles such as Exocet. With the addition of Harpoon surface-to-surface missiles and a medium calibre gun for naval gunfire support, the Type 23 had evolved into a more complex and balanced vessel optimised for general warfare, which introduced a host of new technologies and concepts to the Royal Navy. These included extensive radar cross section reduction design measures, automation to substantially reduce crew size, a CODLAG (Combined Diesel-electric and Gas) propulsion system providing very quiet running for anti-submarine operations along with excellent range, vertical launch missile technology and a fully-distributed combat management system.

The Vertical Launch Sea Wolf surface-to-air missile system was designed for and first deployed on the Type 23. Unlike conventional Sea Wolf, the missile is boosted vertically until it clears the ship’s super-structure and then turns to fly directly to the target. Consequently, the ship’s structure does not cause no-fire zones that would delay or inhibit missile firing in a conventionally launched system.

HMS Norfolk was the first of the class to enter service, commissioned into the Fleet on 1 June 1990 at a cost of 135.449 million GBP, later vessels cost 60-96 million GBP.
Nomenclature

Although the Type 23 is officially the “Duke” class, and includes such famous names as HMS Iron Duke, (which had been the name of the battleship HMS Iron Duke, Admiral Jellicoe’s flagship at the Battle of Jutland), five of the names had previously been used on classes known as the ‘County class’: Kent and Norfolk were names given both to 1960s guided missile destroyers and Second World War-era heavy cruisers, while Monmouth, Lancaster, Kent and Argyll revived names carried by First World War-era armoured cruisers. This use of Ducal and County names broke a tradition of alphabetical names for escort ships which had run in two – not unbroken – cycles from the L-class destroyers of 1913 to the Daring-class destroyers of 1950; this progression was revived with the Amazon-class Type 21 frigates of 1972-75, and continued with B and C names for most of the Type 22 frigates of 1976-89. However, the D names have since been used for the new Type 45 Daring-class destroyers now entering service from 2009.

Specifications

Type 23 propeller, specially designed to reduce underwater noise.

Weapon Systems

2 x quadruple Harpoon missile launchers

32 x Vertical Launch Sea Wolf Surface-to-air missiles (VLS GWS 26 Mod 1 Block 2 system)

1 x 114 mm (4.5 in) Vickers Mark 8 gun (all ships being upgraded to Mod 1 standard)

2 x Oerlikon 30 mm L/75 KCB guns on single Laurence Scott DS-30B mounts. Being upgraded to remote control with electro-optic director

4 x Cray Marine 324 mm (2 twin) fixed torpedo tubes, Marconi Sting Ray

NATO Seagnat, Type 182 and DLF3 countermeasures launchers

Aircraft:

Westland Lynx HM.8 or AgustaWestland Merlin HM.1 helicopter and Cougar AS532 Chilean Navy

Armament:

Sea Skua missiles (Lynx only)

Sting Ray torpedoes

depth charges

AM-39 Exocet (Chilean Navy Cougars)

Electronic Systems

Search: BAE Systems Radar Type 996 Mod 1, 3D surveillance

Navigation: Kelvin Hughes Radar Type 1007 and Racal Decca Type 1008

Fire control:

2 x GEC Marconi Type 911 Sea Wolf systems

Sperry Sea Archer 30 optronic surveillance / director

Bow sonar: Thales Underwater Systems Type 2050

Towed sonar: Ultra Electronics Type 2031Z, being replaced by Type 2087 in eight ships

Combat Management System: BAE Systems Command System DNA(1)

Note: Type 23′s Search Radar will be replaced by BAE Systems Insyte Artisan 3D Radar. The radar also equips Albion Class & HMS Ocean Assault Ships, and will be on the two future Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. The project was worth 100 Million and the contract announced in 4 August, 2008.

Command system

The first few Type 23 frigates entered service without a computerised command system, so the Secretary of State for Defence was asked “what ability those type 23 frigates not fitted with an automated command and control system will possess to identify aircraft as either friendly or hostile.” The reply given was that: “The classification of an aircraft as friendly or hostile is based on information from a variety of sources including the ships identification friend or foe (IFF) system and other sensors. In T23 frigates not fitted with a command system this information will be available but will not be correlated automatically.”

Crew size

“When first commissioned the complement of crew carried by Type 23 frigates was 173. The current [February 1998] complement is 171.” “There are no plans to reduce the complement of Type 23 frigates by refitting with less manpower-intensive equipment. Manning implications are taken into consideration when the Operational Requirement for future ships is considered; however, the size of the complement is affected by other considerations such as the manpower needed for damage control and fire-fighting.”

Helicopters

The table below shows how many helicopters were carried by each of the Type 23 frigates, broken down by type of helicopter, as claimed by the Navy in January 2006.

Ship name

Helicopter type

Number

HMS Argyll

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Sutherland

Lynx Mk3

1

HMS Montrose

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Saint Albans

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Iron Duke

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Kent

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Portland

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Somerset

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Grafton (non-operational from 31 March 2006)

Lynx Mk8

1

HMS Lancaster

Merlin Mk1

1

HMS Monmouth

Merlin Mk1

1

HMS Westminster

Merlin Mk1

1

HMS Northumberland

Merlin Mk1

1

Source: Hansard 10 Jan 2006.

Sonar 2087

Five Type 23 frigates, HM Ships Montrose, Monmouth, Iron Duke, Lancaster and Argyll are not scheduled to receive Sonar 2087. These ships will be employed across the normal range of standing strategic, home and overseas commitments. These include Fleet Ready Escort duties around home waters, operational deployments to the Gulf and Arabian Sea, and standing tasks in the South Atlantic (APT(S)), Caribbean (APT(N)) and within NATO’s Standing Maritime Group in the Mediterranean (SNMG2). They will also continue to contribute to the UK’s Maritime Joint Rapid Reaction Force (JRRF) held at high readiness for contingent operations, and deploy on pre-planned activities as JRRF elements within a Task Group.”

Construction programme

Before the Falklands “the average cost of the type 23 frigate, as then envisaged, was estimated at 75 million at September 1980 prices. This is equivalent to 103 million at 198485 prices.” “A number of improvements in ship design have recently taken place, some resulting from lessons learnt in the Falklands conflict and others which were already in train. We are reducing the amount of flammable material in warships and trying to improve fire-resistant cabling. We are also replacing foam mattresses with sprung mattresses to reduce the risk of fire. Some redesigning is taking place with the introduction of better watertight doors and hatches, and further steps are being taken on damage control, with special reference to the spreading of fire and smoke. Comments have been made about the unsuitability of aluminium in a ship’s structure because it loses strength in fire. It is used only in type 21 frigates and is not being used in warships today.” By January 1985, “the average cost of the type 23 frigate is currently estimated at 110 million at 198485 prices. This includes the cost of design changes judged necessary as a result of lessons learned from the Falklands campaign.” By 2001, the Ministry of Defence said: “The cost of HMS Norfolk, the first of the type 23 class frigates, was 135.449 million. The following 16 vessels have cost, or are estimated to cost where final payments are not yet due, between 60 million and 96 million depending on when the vessel was ordered and the scope of shipbuilder supplied equipment.”

The Ministry of Defence said in 1998 that the Merlin ASW helicopter was costing them 97,000,000 each (this was for an order for 44 airframes), and that this was 57% of the cost of Type 23. From this it can be calculated that the cost of Type 23 was 170,100,000 each.

The costs in the table below are in two columns:

Original hull cost. “Other costs, such as those for Government furnished equipment, are not held centrally for each ship and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.”

Estimated building cost. This is a phrase used in Defence Estimates, and before that in Navy Estimates. It does not include the armament, or government furnished equipment.

In placing construction contracts for Type 23, the Government’s policy was “to place orders for warships following competition, the aim being to secure best value for money for the defence budget. Tender prices and compliance with contract conditions will be the major considerations in the current competition for type 23 frigates. However, as the MOD confirmed in its response to the 31 report from the Committee of Public Accounts (Session 198788), its strategy is to maintain sufficient warship-building capacity to meet likely future defence requirements and a competitive base and these twin objectives are always taken into account in the placing of individual ship and submarine orders.”

Pennant

Name

(a) Hull builder

Ordered

Laid down

Launched

Accepted into service

Commissioned

Original hull cost

Estimated building cost

F230

Norfolk

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

29 October 1984
14 December 1985
10 July 1987
1 June 1990
112,030,000
142,000,000
135,449,000
F231

Argyll

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

1 September 1986
20 March 1987
8 April 1989
17 April 1991
31 May 1991
118,950.000
F229 (ex-F232)

Lancaster

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

1 September 1986
18 December 1987
24 May 1990
1 May 1992
119,710,000
F233

Marlborough

Swan Hunter.

1 September 1986
22 October 1987
21 January 1989
7 March 1991
14 June 1991
118,430,000
120,000,000
F234

Iron Duke

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

11 July 1988
12 December 1988
2 March 1991
20 May 1993
109,770,000
F235

Monmouth

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

11 July 1988
1 June 1989
23 November 1991
24 September 1993
111,660,000
F236

Montrose

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

11 July 1988
1 November 1989
31 July 1992
2 June 1994
117,290,000
F237

Westminster

Swan Hunter.

December 1989
18 January 1991
4 February 1992
13 May 1994
112,680,000
F238

Northumberland

Swan Hunter.

December 1989
4 April 1991
4 April 1992
29 November 1994
114,730,000
F239

Richmond

Swan Hunter.

December 1989
16 February 1992
6 April 1993
22 June 1995
116,200,000
F82

Somerset

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

January 1992
12 October 1992
25 June 1994
20 September 1996
114,140,000
F80

Grafton

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

January 1992
13 May 1993
5 November 1994
29 May 1997
115,560,000
79,000,000
F81

Sutherland

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

January 1992
14 October 1993
9 March 1996
4 July 1997
143,580,000
F78

Kent

Yarrow Shipbuilder Ltd.

February 1996
16 April 1997
27 May 1998
8 June 2000
108,420,000
F79

Portland

Marconi Marine. [Formerly Yarrow.]

February 1996
14 January 1998
15 May 1999
15 December 2000
3 May 2001
92,060,000
F83

St Albans

BAE Systems Marine. [Formerly Yarrow.]

February 1996
18 April 1999
6 May 2000
6 June 2002
106,820,000
Running costs

Date

Running cost

What is included

Citation

198788

3.6 million

Estimate of the annual running costs for a type 23 frigate. These costs include personnel, fuel, spares and so on, and administrative support services, but exclude new construction, capital equipment, and refit-repair costs.

2001-02

10.3 million

“Average annual operating costs, based on historic costs over the last two full financial years are given in the table. The figures include manpower, maintenance, fuel, stores and other costs (such as harbour dues), but exclude depreciation and cost of capital.”

2002-03

10.3 million

Known refits

HMS Iron Duke was due to start refit at Rosyth Royal Dockyard in spring 2001.

“HMS Montrose’s refit at Rosyth is planned for completion in February 2004 and following associated sea trials, she is expected to be ready for operational deployment later that month. The final refit cost will be agreed once all work is completed, but is expected to be just under 23 million. This exceeds the original budget as it now reflects possible changes in labour rates and takes into account additional work identified after the budget had been set.”

Refits completed since 1997

HM Ship

Refit dates

Approx. duration

Contracted price

Final cost

Source

Argyll

Jun 03-Nov 03

24 weeks

5.6 million

5.6 million

Lancaster

May 04-Dec 04

32 weeks

7.6 million

7.6 million

Somerset

May 06-Jun 07

56 weeks

11.9 million

11.9 million

Portland

May 06-Jan 07

44 weeks

8.7 million

8.7 million

Richmond

Aug 05-Sep 06

56 weeks

9.4 million

9.4 million

Kent

Jan 05-Jun 05

24 weeks

5.8 million

5.8 million

Contracts placed under the SSS Programme

HM Ship

Refit dates

Duration

Contracted price incl. profit and growth

Out-turn cost excl. profit

Final cost (m)

Source

Iron Duke

Feb 07-Nov 07

40 weeks

10.8 million

St Albans

May 07-Jul 08

60 weeks

15.4 million

Availability

In February 1998, it was stated that: “Type 23 frigates achieved approximately 85-89 per cent average availability for operational service in each of the last five years with the exception of 1996 when the figure dropped to just over 80 per cent due to a number of ships experiencing a particular defect. This discounts time spent in planned maintenance.”

Disposal

On 21 July 2004, in the Delivering Security in a Changing World review of defence spending, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon announced that HMS Norfolk, Marlborough and Grafton were to be paid off. In 2005 it was announced that these three vessels would be sold to the Chilean Navy, to be delivered in 2008. In September 2005 BAE Systems was awarded a 134 million GBP contract to prepare the frigates for transfer.

The Marlborough, Norfolk and Grafton were sold to Chile for a total of 134 million. The letter of intent for purchase was signed in December 2004, followed by a formal contract on 7 September 2005.

The Norfolk was handed over by the Defence Logistics Organisation and BAE Systems and commissioned into the Chilean Navy on the 22 November 2006, and named Almirante Cochrane (FF-05) (after Lord Cochrane, a naval hero to both the British and Chileans). The Grafton was delivered to Chilean Navy on 28 March 2007 at Portsmouth and renamed Almirante Lynch (FF-07). The Marlborough was delivered to Chilean Navy on 28 May 2008 at Portsmouth and renamed Almirante Condell (FF-06).

Name

RN Home port

Out-of-service date

(as planned in 2006)

Out-of-service date

(as announced in 2009)

Actual out-of-service date

Name after sale abroad

New home port

Commissioned by foreign navy

Status

HMS Norfolk

Devonport
FY2005-06

Almirante Cochrane FF-05

Valparaiso

22 November 2006
Active Chilean Navy

HMS Marlborough

Portsmouth
FY2005-06

Almirante Condell FF-06

Valparaiso

2008
Active Chilean Navy

HMS Grafton

Portsmouth
Non-operational from 31 March 2006.

Almirante Lynch FF-07

Valparaiso

28 March 2007
Active Chilean Navy

HMS Argyll

Devonport
2019
2023
Active RN

HMS Lancaster

Portsmouth
2019
2024
Active RN

HMS Iron Duke

Portsmouth
2020
2025
Active RN

HMS Monmouth

Devonport
2021
2026
Active RN

HMS Montrose

Devonport
2021
2027
Active RN

HMS Westminster

Portsmouth
2028
Active RN

HMS Northumberland

Devonport
2029
Active RN

HMS Richmond

Portsmouth
2030
Active RN

HMS Somerset

Devonport
2031
Active RN

HMS Sutherland

Devonport
2033
Active RN

HMS Kent

Portsmouth
2034
Active RN

HMS Portland

Devonport
2035
Active RN

HMS St. Albans

Portsmouth
2036
Active RN

The Royal Navy current Type 22 and Type 23 frigates will be replaced by the Future Surface Combatant but the programme has not yet reached the main investment decision stage. However, on current plans, we expect the first vessel to enter service around the end of the next decade.

Type 23 frigates in fiction

HMS Westminster was used for the Type 23 interior shots in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies in three different roles as HMS Chester, HMS Devonshire and HMS Bedford. For the exterior shots a Type 23 model was constructed.

The ITV series Making Waves was set aboard the Type 23 frigate HMS Suffolk (which was portrayed by HMS Grafton).

HMS Montrose and HMS Monmouth were used to portray the interior and exterior shots of the fictional HMS Monarch for the film Command Approved which is the centre piece of Action Stations at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth, England.

Footnotes

^ http://website.lineone.net/~david-carrington/Militaria/RoyalNavy/Major.htm

^ a b c Hansard 5 Jul 2001: Column: 245W Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence, 5 July 2001.

^ Hansard 11 Jul 2000: Column: 449W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence when he planned to withdraw the Type 22 Batch II frigates from service. His answer was:

“HMS Sheffield 2012 – to be superseded by a T45 Destroyer

HMS Coventry 2001 – to be superseded by HMS St. Albans, a T23 Frigate”.

^ a b “Defence;Where’s the cache?”. The Economist: p. 21. 1982-07-10. 

^ “House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 5 Jul 2001″. Hansard (Official Report). HM Government. 2001-07-05. http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo010705/text/10705w05.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-23. 

^ http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.13459/changeNav/6568 Royal Navy News and Events:Navy to Get New Radar

^ a b Hansard HC Deb 02 November 1989 vol 159 cc333-4W Questions to Secretary of State for Defence, 2 November 1989.

^ a b Hansard 10 Feb 1998: Column: 195, 10 Feb 1998 : Column: 196 Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence about the manning and availability of warships, 10 February 1998.

^ a b c Hansard 10 Jan 2006: Column 505Wontinued Question to the Secretary of State for Defence how many helicopters are carried by each of the Type 23 frigates, broken down by type of helicopter, 10 January 2006.

^ a b c d e f Hansard 17 July 2006: Column 220W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the five Type 23 frigates which are not to be fitted with Sonar 2087, 17 July 2006.

^ a b HC Deb 11 January 1985 vol 70 c561W Questions to he Secretary of State for Defence about Type 23 frigates, 11 January 1985.

^ Hansard HC Deb 19 July 1983 vol 46 cc179-263

^ Warship World, Spring 1998, pub Maritime Books, page 13. This figure of 97 million each included research and development costs.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag Hansard 13 March 2008: Column 667W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the outturn cost of each Type 23 frigate, 13 March 2008.

^ a b “Unit cost, i.e. excluding cost of certain items (e.g. aircraft, First Outfits).” – Text from Defences Estimates

“They do not include other costs, such as those for Government Furnished Equipment (GFE)s they are not held centrally for each ship and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.” Bob Ainsworth, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, 16 July 2008.

^ The term used in Navy Estimates and Defence Estimates is “accepted into service”. Hansard has used the term acceptance date. Leo Marriott in his various books uses the term “completed”, as does Jane’s Fighting Ships. These terms all mean the same thing: the date the Navy accepts the vessel from the builder. This date is important because maintenance cycles, etc. are generally calculated from the acceptance date.

^ a b c d e f Hansard HC Deb 23 October 1989 vol 158 cc358-61W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence asking him to list the Royal Navy vessels built in each of the past 15 years, showing the cost of each and the yards in which they were constructed.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj Saunders, Stephen Jane’s Fighting Ships 2002-2003, pub Jane’s Information group, 2002, ISBN 0-7106-2432-8 page 776.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa Gardiner, Robert Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1947-1995, pub Conway Maritime Press, 1995, ISBN 0-85177-605-1 page 525.

^ a b c d Hansard 24 May 2007 : Column 1388Wontinued Question to the Secretary of State for Defence which naval vessels have been sold by the Royal Navy in the last five years; what the (a) vessel type, (b) service cost and (c) destination country was in each case; and if he will estimate the (i) original costs of each vessel and (ii) financial gains accrued to public funds as a result of each sale, 24 May 2007.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al Saunders, Stephen Jane’s Fighting Ships 2008-2009, pub Jane’s Information Group, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7106-2845-9 page 862.

^ a b Hansard HC 23 May 1991 Questions to the Secretary of State for Defence about building programme for Type 23, 23 May 1991.

^ a b “HMS Portland”. Type 23 Frigates. royalnavy.mod.uk. 2009. http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/operations-and-support/surface-fleet/type-23-frigates/hms-portland/. Retrieved 7 January 2010. 

^ Hansard HC Deb 10 March 1989 vol 148 c44W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about the annual running costs for different classes of frigate and destroyer.

^ Hansard HC Deb 09 September 2003 vol 410 cc346-7W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence ab out the average operating cost of(a) batch 3 type 22, (b) type 23 and (c) type 42 destroyers, 9 September 2003.

^ Hansard 11 Jul 2000: Column: 449W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about which of the Type 23 Frigates are due for refit in the next 12 months, 11 July 2000.

^ Hansard 5 Mar 2003: Column 1031W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence about HMS Montrose’s refit, 5 March 2003.

^ Out-turn cost data are not required for completed contracts as the price is agreed as part of the contract negotiations.

^ a b c d e f g h 25 Nov 2008 : Column WA280

^ a b c d Saunders, Stephen Jane’s Fighting Ships 2008-2009, pub Jane’s Information Group, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7106-2845-9 page 111.

^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Hansard 3 Mar 2009 : Column 1446Wontinued Question to the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) in-service dates and (b) current out-of-service dates are for each (i) submarine, (ii) frigate and (iii) destroyer in the Royal Navy, 3 March 2009.

^ 3 Mar 2009 : Column 1445W Question to the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) in-service dates and (b) current out-of-service dates are for each (i) submarine, (ii) frigate and (iii) destroyer in the Royal Navy, 3 March 2009.

^ www.imdb.com

References

The Encyclopedia of Warships, From World War Two to the Present Day, General Editor Robert Jackson

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Type 23 frigate

Type 23 Duke Class Frigate

v  d  e

Type 23 frigate

 Royal Navy

Norfolk  Argyll  Lancaster  Marlborough  Iron Duke  Monmouth  Montrose  Westminster  Northumberland  Richmond  Somerset  Grafton  Sutherland  Kent  Portland  St Albans

 Chilean Navy

Almirante Cochrane (ex-Norfolk)  Almirante Condell (ex-Marlborough)  Almirante Lynch (ex-Grafton)

List of frigates of the Royal Navy

Categories: Frigate classes | Type 23 frigates | Active frigates of the United KingdomHidden categories: Articles needing additional references from June 2008 | All articles needing additional references

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Image taken on 2010-05-26 01:25:27 by wallyg.

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In some online collection of ships, the models are categorized according to it use and its price. Some of them are mentioned below.

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In nautical artwork, we get aware with some special designs, pictures of boats and ships which is constructed to keep away passengers from natural calamities like flooding, high and low levels of sea water.

In exhibition which is related to the nautical artwork, we can see various antique designs, pictures and models of the boats, ships, submarines

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Development

In Spring 1977, the UK Ministry of Defence issued a requirement for an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopter to replace the Royal Navy’s Westland Sea Kings. Westland responded with a design designated the WG.34 that was then approved for development. Meanwhile, the Marina Militare (Italian Navy) was also seeking a replacement for its (Agusta-built) Sea Kings, leading Agusta to discussions with Westland about the possibility of a joint development. This culminated in the joint venture being finalised in November 1979 and a new London-based company, EH Industries Limited (EHI), being formed in June the following year to manage the project.

As the design studies progressed, EHI became aware of a broader market for an aircraft with the same capabilities as those required by the British and Italian navies. On 12 June 1981, the UK confirmed their participation, with an initial budget of 20 billion to develop nine pre-series examples. A major agreement securing funding for the development of the EH-101 program was signed by both the British and Italian governments in 1984. At the 1985 Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, Agusta showed a mock-up of a utility version of the new helicopter, leading to a more generalised design that could be customised. After a lengthy development, the first prototype flew on 9 October 1987.

In 1989 demand for the EH-101 was uncertain, the American Blackhawk was providing competition with potential export customers, and neither Britain or Italy had placed production orders yet. The Canadian government had expressed considerable interest in 1991 in acquiring up to 43 EH-101s to replace their own aging naval helicopters; however with the end of the Cold War they were branded as excessive by several politicians and the acquisition was aborted in 1996. Britain maintained its commitment to the project, ordering 22 EH-101 helicopters in February 1995; Italy also pressed ahead with its order for 16 EH-101s in October 1995.

The first group of production EH-101s for the RAF began arriving in 1997. In 2002 Westland made an unsolicited and unsuccessful offer to provide the MoD with an enhanced version of the Merlin to meet the UK’s demand for lift capability. Westland and Agusta merged together to form AgustaWestland International Limited in July 2000, closing down EHI as a separate entity shortly afterwards. Consequently in June 2007 the EH101 was re-branded as the AW101.

Design

Overview

AW101 airframe diagram

The AW101 Merlin is well known for its extensive use of composite materials. The modular aluminium-lithium alloy fuselage structure is damage and crash resistant, with multiple primary and secondary load paths. Active vibration control of the structural response (ACSR) uses a vibration-canceling technique to reduce the stress on the airframe. The AW101 is rated to operate in temperatures ranging from -40 to +50 C. High flotation tyres permit operation from soft or rough terrain. The main rotor blades are a derivative of the BERP rotor blade design, which improves the aerodynamic efficiency at the blade tips, as well as reducing the blade’s noise signature.

The cockpit is fitted with armoured seats for the crew, and can withstand an impact velocity of over 10 m/s. Dual flight controls are provided, though the EH-101 can be flown by a single person. The pilot’s instrument displays include six full colour high-definition screens and an optional mission display. A digital map and Forward-Looking Infrared system display can also be installed.

Propulsion

The military version of the AW101 is powered by either three Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca RTM322 turboshafts used by the UK, Japan, Denmark and Portugal; or three 1,491 kW General Electric CT7-6 turboshafts in Italy, Canada, and Japan. The Rolls-Royce RTM322 engine was specifically designed for the AW101, and was later used other helicopters such as the WAH-64 Apache. Engine inlet particle separator systems provide protection when operating in sandy environments. Each engine is supplied by a separate 1,074 litre self-sealing fuel tank using dual booster pumps. A fourth tank acts as a reservoir supply, topping up the main tanks during flight; while a fifth transfer tank can be added to increase range, as can airborne refuelling. The engines power an 18.59 metre diameter five-bladed main rotor. The rotor blades are constructed from carbon/glass with nomex honeycomb and rohacell foam, edged with titanium alloy. Computer control of the engines via the aircraft EECU’s (electronic engine control unit) allows the AW101 to hover reliably in winds of over 80 km/h.

Weapon and defensive systems

A chin FLIR is fitted to some variants. The AW101 (excluding the ASM MK1) is equipped with Chaff and flare dispensers, directed infrared countermeasures (infrared jammers), ESM (electronic support measures, in the form of RF [radio frequency] heads), and a laser detection and warning system.

It has two hard points for weapon carriers, on which the HM Mk1 model can carry four Sting Ray torpedoes or Mk 11 Mod 3 depth charges, though at present cannot use the Sea Skua missile. The Mk1, Mk3 and 3a variants can mount General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs) in up to 5 locations in the main cabin pointing out of door and window apertures.

Cargo systems

The AW101′s fuselage has a volume of 31.91 m3 and the cargo compartment is 6.5 m in length, 2.3 m wide and 1.91 m high. The military version of the AW101 can accommodate up to 24 seated or 45 standing combat troops and their equipment. Alternative loads include a medical team and 16 stretchers, and cargo pallets. The cabin floor and rear ramp are fitted with flush tie-down points, a semi-automatic cargo release unit (SACRU). The ramp (1.91×2.3 m) can take a 3,050 kg load, allowing it to carry vehicles such as Land Rovers. A cargo hook under the fuselage can carry external loads of 5,440 kg via the use of a SACRU. A rescue hoist and a hover trim controller are fitted at the cargo door.

Avionics

The navigation system includes a GPS and inertial navigation system, VHF Omnidirectional Radio range (VOR) instrument landing system (ILS), tactical air navigation (TACAN) and automatic direction finding. The MK1 and MK3 are equipped with a DVS (Doppler velocity system) for when the exclusive use of the conventional pitot pressure instruments might be unreliable for gauging accurate airspeed. The AW101 is equipped with helicopter management, avionics and mission systems linked by two 1553B multiplex and ARINC 429 databuses. A Smiths Industries OMI 20 SEP automatic flight control system provides dual redundant digital control, giving autostabilisation and four-axis auto-pilot operation.

Operational history

British Royal Navy

The RN’s final order was for 44 ASW machines, originally designated Merlin HAS.1 but soon changed to Merlin HM1. The first fully operational Merlin was delivered on 17 May 1997, entering service on 2 June 2000. All aircraft were delivered by the end of 2002, and are operated by four Fleet Air Arm squadrons, all based at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall: 814 NAS, 820 NAS, 824 NAS and 829 NAS. 700 NAS was the Merlin Operational Evaluation Unit from 2000 to 2008.

A Merlin HM1 from HMS Monmouth flight, 829 NAS, 2007.

In March 2004, RN Merlins were grounded following an incident at RNAS Culdrose when the tail rotor failed on one of them. Investigations revealed that this was due to tail rotor hub manufacturing defects. Flights resumed the following year.

The Merlin HM1 has been cleared to operate from the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, Type 23 frigates and a number of RFA vessels including the Fort Victoria Class. It is also intended to equip the forthcoming Type 45 destroyers. A Capability Sustainment Programme is currently in place to upgrade 30 aircraft to the Merlin HM2 standard. This will include a new mission system and digital cockpit. It had been planned to include the remaining 8 airframes but this has now been dropped for financial reasons while alternative roles were sought for these aircraft.

The UK had long considered the Merlin as a replacement for the Sea King ASaC7 in the Airborne Early Warning (AEW) role. On 15 December 2009, the future helicopter plans were announced. The RAF Merlin HC3 and HC3As will be moved to the Commando Helicopter Force replacing ‘junglie’ Sea King Commando helicopter, these helicopters being replaced with Chinooks in RAF service. The eight spare airframes will be refitted with equipment from the Sea King ASaC7. Sea King will also be replaced in the SAR role by a PFI deal, resulting in the retirement of Sea King, leaving the Navy operating Lynx Wildcat and Merlin, the RAF operating Chinooks, and Army operating Lynx Wildcat and Apache. The Lynx helicopter has been seen as a useful compliment to the newer Merlins, however it had been mooted in 1995 than phasing out Lynx for an all-Merlin fleet in maritime use would be plausible.

Royal Navy Merlins have seen action in the Caribbean, on counter-narcotics and hurricane support duties. They have also been active in Iraq, providing support to British and coalition troops on the ground, as well as maritime security duties in the North Persian Gulf.

British Royal Air Force

A British Merlin in Iraq during 2005

RAF ordered 22 transport helicopters designated Merlin HC3, the first of which entered service with No. 28 Squadron RAF, based at RAF Benson, in January 2001. The type is equipped with extended-range fuel tanks and is capable of air-to-air refueling; however, due to the lack of a suitable UK tanker aircraft, this capability has not been cleared for use. It also differs from the Royal Navy version by having double-wheel main landing gear, whereas the RN version only has a single wheel on each of the main gears.

Depth maintenance of Merlin HC3 is carried out at the Merlin Depth Maintenance Facility at RNAS Culdrose. The first operational deployment was to the Balkans in early 2003. They were deployed to southern Iraq as part of Operation Telic until July 2009 when British Forces withdrew from Iraq.

To alleviate a shortfall in operational helicopters the British Ministry of Defence acquired six DMRH AW101s from Denmark in 2007. These were assigned to the RAF with the designation Merlin HC3A. As part of the deal, the UK Ministry of Defence ordered six new-build replacements for the Royal Danish Air Force. In December 2007, a second Merlin squadron, No. 78 Squadron was formed at Benson. Five Merlin Mk3s are operating in Afghanistan in 2010; their initial deployment was criticised as they allegedly lack Kevlar armour, the aircraft are now fully fitted with ballistic protection armour.[citation needed]

It has been announced that the RAF will transfer its Merlins to the Commando Helicopter Force, and replace them with Chinook HC2.

Italian Navy

Italian Navy ASW variant in 2004

In 1997, the Italian government ordered 20 EH101 helicopters with four options for the Italian Navy in the following variants:

9 (+1) anti-surface and anti-submarine (ASW)

4 (+2) early-warning (AEW)

4 utility aircraft

4 ASH (Amphibious Support Helicopter)

The first Italian Navy production helicopter (MM81480) was first flown on 4 October 1999 and was officially presented to the press on 6 December 1999 at the Agusta factory. Deliveries to the Italian Navy started at the beginning of 2001 and were completed by 2006. Italian EH101s operate from a variety of ships, including aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships. The 9th ASW helicopter was delivered on August 2009.

The AW-101 was chosen for CSAR program, 12 + 3 option, of Aeronautica Militare (Air Force) for replacement of HH-3F.

Royal Danish Air Force

A Royal Danish Air Force AW101 hoisting from a ship’s deck

In 2001, the Royal Danish Air Force announced the purchase of eight EH101s for SAR duties and six tactical troop transports. The last of the 14 EH101s was delivered 1 March 2007 and the first SAR EH101s became operational in late April 2007. The Danish Mk 512s have a MTOW of 15,600 kg.

In 2007, the British Ministry of Defence acquired the six troop transport EH101s from Denmark to alleviate a shortfall in British operational helicopters. In exchange, the British have ordered six new-build helicopters from AgustaWestland as replacements for the Royal Danish Air Force.

On 28 January 2008, one Danish AW101 broke the drive shaft from one engine to the gear box and made an emergency landing at Billund Airport. Following this incident the Danish fleet was grounded as a safety precaution. The incident provoked national debate about the future of the EH101 in Danish service and whether it made sense to acquire different helicopters, since the EH101 had very low availability of roughly 30% due to mechanical issues. AgustaWestland in turn blamed the Danes for ordering spare parts very late and not keeping enough staff to properly service the helicopters. In April 2008, RDAF reported considerable improvements in operational availability of over 50%, citing improved service from AW (speedy delivery of spare parts) and increased proficiency of ground crews as responsible.[citation needed]

Portuguese Air Force

The Portuguese Air Force has operated Merlins since 24 February 2005, in transport, search and rescue, combat search and rescue, fisheries surveillance and maritime surveillance missions. The 12 aircraft, in three versions, gradually replaced the Arospatiale Puma in those roles. Portuguese Merlins are painted in a tactical green and brown camouflage.

The main role of the Portuguese AW101 is search and rescue in Portugal’s maritime zone. EH-101s are on constant alert at three bases: Montijo (near Lisbon), Lajes Field, Azores and Porto Santo Island.

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

Japanese MCH-101

The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ordered 14 aircraft in 2003 to use in both the AMCM (Airborne Mine Counter-Measures) and transport roles. The AW101 was modified by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and the Japan Defense Agency designated the model as MCH-101. The characteristic could fold rotor and tail automatically, carried Active anti-vibration system.

Kawasaki began the license production of the airframe of CH-101 and MCH-101 in 2003. MEXT uses CH-101 for the Antarctic transportation. Kawasaki began the license production of the RTM322 engine in 2005. First MCH-101 delivered it to the Self-Defense Force in 2006.

The MCH-101 and CH-101 will replace the MH-53E (S-80-M-1) for AMCM, and the Sikorsky S-61 in a support role for Japanese Antarctic observations.

Other military customers

There has been a considerable demand for the AW-101; which has kept a continuous queue of customers for over five years.

Norway has expressed an interest in the AW101 as a candidate for the Norwegian All Weather Search and Rescue Helicopter (NAWSARH) programme, that is planned to replace the Westland Sea King Mk.43B of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 2015. The other candidates for the NAWSARH contract of 10-12 helicopters are Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, Eurocopter EC225, NHIndustries NH-90 and Sikorsky S-92.

South Korea has recognised the need to modernse their airborne mine countermeasures (AMCM) maritime helcopter fleet, and the AW101 is one of the helicopters being studied for the role.

In November 2007, Algeria signed a contract for six AW101 helicopters. This is one of several deals that may potentially follow according to the MOD.

VIP usage

AgustaWestland developed a luxury variant of the AW101, the AW101 VVIP, targeted at business and VIP customers. In mid-2008 it was revealed that a Saudi Arabian customer had ordered two VVIP AW101s.

The United States Marine Corps has acquired two AW101 VH-71 helicopters as part of its efforts to replace its Marine One helicopters. However the project itself was halted when funding on the programme was cut on 6 April 2009, though it is likely to see a revival.

India plans to order 12 AW-101 helicopters, for the Indian President and Prime Minister. The AW-101 was selected after competing against the Sikorsky S-92 “Superhawk” in field trials in 2008. One particular requirement was that the helicopter have “a high tail boom” to allow the Prime Minister’s car to come closer to the rear exit staircase for reduced exposure to threats.

Variants

Model 110

Italian Navy ASW/ASuW variant, eight built.

Model 111

Royal Navy ASW/ASuW variant, designated Merlin HM1 by customer, 44 built.

Model 112

Italian Navy Early Warning variant, four built.

Model 300

Italian-built prototype civil passenger variant, one built.

Model 410

Italian Navy transport variant, eight built.

Model 411

Royal Air Force transport variant, designated Merlin HC3 by customer, 22 built.

Model 500

Prototype utility variant with rear-ramp, two built.

Model 510

Civil transport variant, two built.

Model 511

Canadian Forces search and rescue variant, designated CH-149 Cormorant by customer, 15 built.

Model 512

Royal Danish Air Force variant for search and rescue and transport, 14 built.

Model 514

Portuguese Air Force search and rescue variant, six built.

Model 515

Portuguese Air Force fisheries protection variant, two built.

Model 516

Portuguese Air Force combat search and rescue, four built.

Model 518

Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force mine countermeasures and transport, two built.

Model 519

Transport variant for the United States Marine Corps as the VH-71 Kestrel, five built.

Merlin HM1

Royal Navy designation for the Model 111.

Merlin HM2

Avionics retrofitting for 30 RN HM1s to be performed by Lockheed Martin for the Royal Navy. First flight expected late 2010.

Merlin HC3

Royal Air Force designation for the Model 411.

Merlin HC3A

Royal Air Force designation for six former Royal Danish Air Force Model 512s modified to UK standards.

CH-148 Petrel

33 originally ordered by the Canadian Forces, reduced to 28 and later cancelled.

CH-149 Cormorant

Canadian Forces designation for the Model 511 Search and rescue variant. (14 in service).

VH-71 Kestrel

USMC variant intended to serve as the US Presidential helicopter. Two in testing.

Operators

Rescue 09 a Danish Air Force Search and Rescue EH101

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department EH101

Merlin in Portuguese Air Force colours

Military operators

 Algeria

Algerian Navy

(6 on Order)

 Denmark

Royal Danish Air Force

Eskadrille 722 (Squadron 722)

 Italy

Italian Navy

1Gruppo Elicotteri

3Gruppo Elicotteri

 Japan

Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force

 Portugal

Portuguese Air Force

Squadron 751 “Pumas”

 United Kingdom

Royal Navy

700M Naval Air Squadron (Operational Evaluation Unit) (2000-2008)

814 Naval Air Squadron

820 Naval Air Squadron

824 Naval Air Squadron

829 Naval Air Squadron

Royal Air Force

No. 28 Squadron RAF, RAF Benson

No. 78 Squadron RAF, RAF Benson

Law enforcement operators

 Japan

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department became the first civil customer for the type when they purchased a single example in 1998.

Notable accidents and incidents

Five Merlins have been written-off and one damaged in accidents, of which three have been due to problems with the tail rotor hub cracking.[citation needed]

21 January 1993 – Italian development Merlin PP2 (MMX600) crashed near Novara-Cameri airfield in Italy after an uncommanded application of the rotor brake in flight – four killed.[citation needed]

17 April 1995 – British development Merlin PP4 (ZF644) crashed near Yarcombe in Dorset, England.[citation needed]

20 August 1996 – Italian development Merlin PP7 (I-HIOI) was damaged in an accident when it turned over after the tail rotor drive failed on landing. The helicopter was repaired.

27 October 2000 – British Royal Navy Merlin (ZH844) ditched near the Isle of Skye, Scotland after a hydraulic fire caused by the rotor brake being partially engaged.

30 March 2004 – British Royal Navy Merlin (ZH859) crashed on take-off from RNAS Culdrose due to tail rotor hub cracking.

15 November 2007 – During a medical evacuation on So Jorge Island, Azores, Portugal, a Portuguese Air Force Merlin caused injuries to five people when it suddenly and unexpectedly climbed by one meter in the middle of the embarking procedures. The pilot was then able to recover the control of the helicopter minimizing the damages. According to the air force spokesperson, this kind of incident is unheard of.

Specifications (Merlin HM1)

Composite image of an RAF Merlin testing flares

General characteristics

Crew: 4

Capacity:

24 seated troops or

45 standing troops or

16 stretchers with medics

Length: 22.81 m (74 ft 10 in)

Rotor diameter: 18.59 m (61 ft 0 in)

Height: 6.65 m (21 ft 10 in)

Disc area: 271 m (2,992 ft)

Empty weight: 10,500 kg (23,150 lb)

Useful load: 5,443 kg (12,000 lb)

Max takeoff weight: 15,600 kg (32,188 lb)

Powerplant: 3 Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322-01 turboshafts, 1,725 kW (2,312 shp) each

Performance

Never exceed speed: 309 km/h (167 knots, 192 mph)

Range: 1,389 km (750 nm, 863 mi)

Service ceiling: 4,575 m (15,000ft)

Rate of climb: 10.2 m/s (2,000 ft/min)

Disc loading: 53.8 kg/m (11.01 lb/ft)

Power/mass: 284.9 W/kg (0.174 shp/lb)

Armament

Guns: 5 general purpose machine guns

Bombs: 960 kg (2,116 lb) of anti-ship missiles (up to 2), homing torpedoes (up to 4), depth charges and rockets

Avionics

Smiths Industries OMI 20 SEP dual-redundant digital automatic flight control system

Navigation systems:

BAE Systems LINS 300 ring laser gyro, Litton Italia LISA-4000 strapdown AHRS (naval variants)

Tactical air navigation (TACAN), VHF Omnidirectional Radio range (VOR), instrument landing system (ILS)

Radar:

Selex Galileo Blue Kestrel 5000 maritime surveillance radar (ASW RN EH101s)

Eliradar MM/APS-784 maritime surveillance radar (ASW Italian EH101s)

Eliradar HEW-784 air/surface surveillance radar (AEW variants)

Officine Galileo MM/APS-705B search/weather radar (Italian Navy Utility EH101s)

Telephonics RDR-1600 weather avoidance radar (Royal Danish Air Force EH101s)

Galileo APS-717 search/surveillance radar (Portuguese Air Force EH101s)

See also

European defence procurement

Related development

CH-149 Cormorant

VH-71 Kestrel

Comparable aircraft

Mil Mi-17

Mil Mi-38

Eurocopter Cougar

CH-148 Cyclone

NHI NH90

Sikorsky S-92

Related lists

List of helicopters

List of active United Kingdom military aircraft

References

^ “EH-101 Merlin factsheet”. Portuguese Air Force. http://www.emfa.pt/www/aeronavesdetalhe.php?lang=ing&cod=eh101. Retrieved 5-02-2010. 

^ “Danish Airforce factsheet”. Danish Airforce. http://forsvaret.dk/FTK/Factsheets/. Retrieved 5-02-2010. 

^ “Concept image of WG.34″. Flight International. 25 November 1978. http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1978/1978 – 3004.html. 

^ Briganti, Giovanni de. “Agusta, Westland and Europe”. defense-aerospace.com. http://www.defense-aerospace.com/cgi-bin/client/modele.pl?prod=19144&shop=dae&modele=feature. Retrieved 5-02-2010. 

^ Aeronautica & Difesa, No. 14, Dec 1987, p. 34.

^ “Go-ahead for Anglo-Italian EH101 Helicopter”. MCB UP. 1984. pp. 11 – 12. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&contentId=1683254. 

^ Twigge, Stephen (August 1992). “The EH101 helicopter: A fully integrated international collaborative program”. pp. 133 – 146. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a783124445&db=all. 

^ Richardson, Ian (5 December 1989). “Westland banking on navy buying EH 101″. Glasgow Herald. http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers?id=DDU1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=MaYLAAAAIBAJ&pg=3981,1553354&dq=eh-101&hl=en. 

^ McLaughlin, Audrey (28 July 1992). “Cold War ‘copters a waste of money”. Toronto Star. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/456445171.html?dids=456445171:456445171&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+28,+1992&author=Audrey+McLaughlin&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=Cold+War+’copters+a+waste+of+money&pqatl=google. 

^ Thompson, Allan (2 June 1995). “$2.6 billion sought for copters Military wants craft to replace aging Sea Kings”. Toronto Star. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/thestar/access/21199516.html?dids=21199516:21199516&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jun+02,+1995&author=By+Allan+Thompson+Toronto+Star&pub=Toronto+Star&desc=$2.6+billion+sought+for+copters+Military+wants+craft+to+replace+aging+Sea+Kings&pqatl=google. 

^ “Canada settles claim on Canceled Helicopters”. New York Times. 24 January 1996. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/24/business/international-briefs-canada-settles-claim-on-canceled-helicopters.html. 

^ Hotten, Russell (23 February 1995). “Westland tipped for MoD order”. The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/westland-tipped-for-mod-order-1574476.html. 

^ “Italian navy orders 16 EH-101 helicopters”. Defense Daily. 10 October 1995. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-17564657/italian-navy-orders-16.html. 

^ Ford, Terry (1997). “Advances in rotorcraft”. pp. 447 – 452. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&hdAction=lnkpdf&contentId=876450. 

^ Barrie, D (23 December 2002). “Westland pushes additional Merlins for U.K. lift needs”. p. 29. http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=TRD&recid=200305110503MT&q=Merlin+Helicopter&uid=788944159&setcookie=yes. 

^ “Westland merger confirmed”. BBC News. 26 July 2000. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/852612.stm. 

^ Hope, Christopher (27 May 2004). “Italians take controls at UK helicopter maker”. The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2886459/Italians-take-controls-at-UK-helicopter-maker.html. 

^ “Rotorcraft Report: AgustaWestland”. Rotor & Wing. Access Intelligence, LLC. 2007-08-01. http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/personalcorporate/exectransport/14508.html. “The company re-branded its medium-lift EH101 transport the AW101 to reflect…the full integration of its Agusta and Westland…” 

^ Marks, N.G. (August 1989). Polymer Composites for Helicopter Structures. 5. Met. Mater.. pp. 456 – 459. http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewrecord.php?requester=gs&collection=TRD&recid=9001F1D0024ED&q=Merlin+Helicopter&uid=788944159&setcookie=yes. 

^ Prouty, Ray. Helicopter Aerodynamics, Helobooks, 2003

^ Prince, J. Colin; James F. Farrell; H. Woo; P. Yu; Ray Leerentveld (5 June 1995). Color AMLCD displays for the EH-101 helicopter. 2462. SPIE. pp. 234 – 240. http://spie.org/x648.html?product_id=210962. 

^ Witt, Mike (Spring 1990). Rolls-Royce fount of military power. 135. RUSI Journal. pp. 39 – 45. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a791611879&db=all. 

^ “RTM322″. Rolls-Royce plc. http://www.rolls-royce.com/defence/products/helicopters/rtm_322.jsp. Retrieved 2009-03-16. 

^ “FLIR Systems awarded contract to provide Thermal Imaging Systems for Royal Danish and Portuguese Air Forces; Contract valued at more than $10 million”. Business Wire. 2 October 2002. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-26263106_ITM. 

^ Rivers, Brendan P (1 November 2001). “Nordic Helo paths diverge”. Journal of Electronic Defense. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27217675_ITM. “The first had no specific requirements other than that it needed to include an EW controller, a radar-warning receiver, a missile-warning system, a laser-warning system, and a chaff/flare dispenser, with an optional RF jammer” 

^ Cox, Bob (1 November 2001). “Lockheed Martin teams with European firm to market new All-Weather Helicopter”. Fort Worth Star. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-120758861/lockheed-martin-teams-european.html. “As a transport, the EH-101 could be configured to carry 24 to 30 troops, up to five tons of cargo or up to 16 stretchers to carry wounded” 

^ Smith, Alan F (1 October 1997). “Aluminum-lithium alloys in helicopters”. Advanced Materials & Processes. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-20392066.html. 

^ Scott, Richard (9 December 2003). “Sea change”. Flight International. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2003/12/09/174779/sea-change.html. 

^ “Probe continues into Merlin crash”. BBC News. 31 March 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3584851.stm. 

^ Jane’s Defence Weekly 8 July 2009 p. 14

^ “Royal Navy begins process to replace Sea King Commando”. Flight International. 30 April 1997. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/1997/04/30/2315/royal-navy-begins-process-to-replace-sea-king-commando.html. 

^ “Ships and aircraft axed to pay for war against Taleban”. Navy News. 16 December 2009. http://www.navynews.co.uk/news/647-ships-and-aircraft-axed-to-pay-for-war-against-taleban.aspx. 

^ Cobbold, Richard (April 1994). “The Maritime helicopter”. Chief of the Defence staff (RUSI Journal) 139 (2): 56-63. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a791612819&db=all. 

^ “Integrated Merlin Operational Support”. Serco. http://www.serco.com/markets/defence/imos.asp. Retrieved 5-02-2010. 

^ “78 Squadron Operational”. Royal Air Force. 3 December 2007. http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/index.cfm?storyid=A64EDF95-1143-EC82-2EBC003A8CAFA24D. 

^ “MoD denies Merlin ‘unsafe’ claims”. BBC News. 4 August 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8182649.stm. 

^ “Direzione Generale degli Armamenti Aeronautici: EH – 101″. Italian Ministry of Defence. http://www.difesa.it/Segretario-SGD-DNA/DG/ARMAEREO/Programmi/Ala+Rotante/eh101.htm. English translation

^ “AgustaWestland received a UKPd250 mil contract to supply 14 helicopters to Denmark”. The Engineer. 21 September 2001. http://www.alacrastore.com/storecontent/Business-and-Industry/24995790. 

^ “Forsvarets fejlindkb str i k”. Berlingske Tidende. 4 February 2008. http://www.berlingske.dk/article/20080204/danmark/702040040/. 

^ “MCH-101 Airborne Mine Countermeasures (AMCM)”. Globalsecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/japan/mch-101.htm. Retrieved 17-12-2009. 

^ a b “First MCH-101 Helicopter Goes to Japan Defense Agency”. KHI. http://www.khi.co.jp/ba/2006data/ba_c3060303-1.html. Retrieved 17-12-2009. 

^ “Milestone RTM322 Engine goes to Japan Defense Agency”. KHI. http://www.khi.co.jp/ba/2005data/ba_c3051014-1.html. Retrieved 21-12-2009. 

^ “Kawasaki Aircraft”. KHI. http://www.khi.co.jp/products/aerospace/airplane_e.html. Retrieved 5-02-2010. 

^ David, Adrian (11 April 2008). “Successful ops push up demand for AW101 copters”. New Straits Times. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-151350188.html. 

^ “The NAWSARH Project”. Royal Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police. http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/jd/kampanjer/helicopters/about-the-project.html. Retrieved 2009-06-06. 

^ Per Erlien Dallkken (2009-05-07). “De fem kandidatene” (in Norwegian). Teknisk Ukeblad. http://www.tu.no/motor/article208828.ece. Retrieved 2009-06-06. 

^ Sung-ki, Jung (17 June 2008). “S. Korean Navy to Buy 4 Mine Sweeper Choppers by 2012″. Korea Times. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx=26068. 

^ “AgustaWestland, 400 million Euro contract in Algeria”. Avionews. 20 November 2007. http://www.avionews.com/index.php?corpo=see_news_home.php&news_id=1082317&pagina_chiamante=index.php. 

^ “UK to sell military equipment to Algeria- paper”. El-Khabar. 27 October 2009. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=NewsLibrary&p_multi=BBAB&d_place=BBAB&p_theme=newslibrary2&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=12BA09F118D07E48&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. 

^ “EBACE 2008: Agusta Westland targets VVIPs with luxury AW101″. Flight Daily News. 19 May 2008. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2008/05/19/223796/ebace-2008-agusta-westland-targets-vvips-with-luxury-aw101.html. 

^ “Saudi Arabian customer orders two VVIP AgustaWestland AW-101s”. http://www.shephard.co.uk/Rotorhub/Default.aspx?Action=745115149&ID=8de1773c-b730-4ecc-b8c8-69b323e785e0. Retrieved 2008-08-12.  mirror

^ Page, Lewis (9 January 2009). “Could the Airbus A380 be the new Air Force One? – Obama’s chopper is European”. The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/09/air_force_one_replacement/. 

^ Trimble, Stephen (2 June 2009). “US Navy terminates VH-71 presidential helicopter contract”. flightglobal.com. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/06/02/327241/us-navy-terminates-vh-71-presidential-helicopter-contract.html. 

^ “VH-71 Presidential Helicopter Program: Background and Issues for Congress”. Congressional Research Service. 5 June 2009. http://opencrs.com/document/RS22103/. 

^ Rao, Radhakrishna (10 August 2009). “India approves deals for Ka-31, AW101 helicopters”. Flight International. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/08/10/330795/india-approves-deals-for-ka-31-aw101-helicopters.html. 

^ “PM, President to get swanky copters”. The Times of India. 30 July 2009. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/PM-President-to-get-swanky-copters/articleshow/4836077.cms. 

^ “EH-101 flight operations suspended following mishap”. Defense Daily. 3 September 1996. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-18644339/eh-101-flight-operations.html. 

^ Steele, David (28 October 2000). “Two aircraft crashes within one hour cost MoD 50m”. The Herald. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/smgpubs/access/63000476.html?dids=63000476:63000476&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Oct+28,+2000&author=David+Steele&pub=The+Herald&desc=Two+aircraft+crashes+within+one+hour+cost+MoD+#50m&pqatl=google. 

^ “Flying restrictions after crash”. BBC News. 6 April 2004. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/3604441.stm. 

^ (in Portuguese) Jornal de Notcias – Incidente com helicptero da Fora Area fez cinco feridos, archived from the original on 17 December 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20071217120038/http://jn.sapo.pt/2007/11/16/ultimas/Incidente_com_helic_ptero_da_Fo.html 

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Lead-up to the conflict

Main article: Events leading to the Falklands War

In the period leading up to the war, and especially following the transfer of power between military dictators General Jorge Rafael Videla and General Roberto Eduardo Viola in late-March 1981, Argentina had been in the midst of a devastating economic crisis and large-scale civil unrest against the military junta that had been governing the country since 1976. In December 1981 there was a further change in the Argentine military regime bringing to office a new junta headed by General Leopoldo Galtieri (acting president), Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo and Admiral Jorge Anaya. Anaya would be the main architect and supporter of a military solution for the long standing claim over the islands, calculating that the United Kingdom would never respond militarily. In doing so the Galtieri government hoped to mobilise Argentines’ long-standing patriotic feelings towards the islands and thus divert public attention from the country’s chronic economic problems and the regime’s ongoing human rights violations. Such action would also bolster its dwindling legitimacy. The newspaper La Prensa speculated in a step-by-step plan beginning with cutting off supplies to the Islands, ending in direct actions late 1982, if the UN talks were fruitless.

The ongoing tension between the two countries over the islands increased on 19 March when a group of hired Argentine scrap metal merchants raised the Argentine flag at South Georgia, an act that would later be seen as the first offensive action in the war. The Argentine military junta, suspecting that the UK would reinforce its South Atlantic Forces, ordered the invasion of the Falkland Islands to be brought forward to 2 April.

Admiral Jorge Anaya

Britain was initially taken by surprise by the Argentine attack on the South Atlantic islands, despite repeated warnings by Royal Navy captain Nicholas Barker and others. Barker believed that the intention expressed in Defence Secretary John Nott’s 1981 review to withdraw the Royal Navy ship HMS Endurance, Britain’s only naval presence in the South Atlantic, sent a signal to the Argentines that Britain was unwilling, and would soon be unable, to defend her territories and subjects in the Falklands.

War

Invasion by Argentina

Main article: 1982 invasion of the Falkland Islands

Main article: Invasion of South Georgia

On 2 April 1982, Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings of the Falkland Islands, following the civilian occupation of South Georgia on March 19, before the Falklands War began. The invasion met a nominal defence organised by the Falkland Islands’ Governor Sir Rex Hunt giving command to Major Mike Norman of the Royal Marines, the landing of Lieutenant Commander Guillermo Sanchez-Sabarots’ Amphibious Commandos Group, the attack on Moody Brook barracks, the engagement between the troops of Hugo Santillan and Bill Trollope at Stanley, and the final engagement and surrender at Government House.

Initial British response to the invasion

HMS Invincible was a part of the task force.

Word of the invasion apparently first reached Britain via amateur radio.

The retaking of the Falkland Islands was considered extremely difficult: the main constraint was the disparity in deployable air cover (the British having 34 Harrier aircraft against Argentina’s 220 jet fighters). The U.S. Navy considered a successful counter-invasion by the British to be ‘a military impossibility’. The United States initially tried to mediate an end to the conflict. However, when Argentina refused the U.S. peace overtures, U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig announced that the United States would prohibit arms sales to Argentina and provide material support for British operations. Both Houses of the U.S. Congress passed resolutions supporting the U.S. action siding with the United Kingdom.
By mid-April, the Royal Air Force had set up an airbase at Wideawake on the mid-Atlantic British overseas territory of Ascension Island, including a sizable force of Avro Vulcan B Mk 2 bombers, Handley Page Victor K Mk 2 refuelling aircraft, and McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR Mk 2 fighters to protect them. Meanwhile the main British naval task force arrived at Ascension to prepare for active service. A small force had already been sent south to recapture South Georgia.

Encounters began in April; the British Task Force was shadowed by Boeing 707 aircraft of the Argentine Air Force during their travel to the south FAA map. Several of these flights were intercepted by BAE Sea Harriers outside the British-imposed exclusion zone; the unarmed 707s were not attacked because diplomatic moves were still in progress and the UK had not yet decided to commit itself to armed force. On 23 April a Brazilian commercial Douglas DC-10 from VARIG Airlines en route to South Africa was intercepted by British Harriers who visually identified the civilian plane.

Recapture of South Georgia and the attack on the Santa Fe

The South Georgia force, Operation Paraquet, under the command of Major Guy Sheridan RM, consisted of Marines from 42 Commando, a troop of the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS) troops who were intended to land as reconnaissance forces for an invasion by the Royal Marines. All were embarked on RFA Tidespring. First to arrive was the Churchill-class submarine HMS Conqueror on 19 April, and the island was over-flown by a radar-mapping Handley Page Victor on 20 April.

The first landings of SAS troops took place on 21 April, butith the southern hemisphere autumn setting inhe weather was so bad that their landings and others made the next day were all withdrawn after two helicopters crashed in fog on Fortuna Glacier. On 23 April, a submarine alert was sounded and operations were halted, with the Tidespring being withdrawn to deeper water to avoid interception. On 24 April, the British forces regrouped and headed in to attack.

On 25 April, after resupplying the Argentine garrison in South Georgia, the submarine ARA Santa Fe was spotted on the surface by a Westland Wessex HAS Mk 3 helicopter from HMS Antrim, which attacked the Argentine submarine with depth charges. HMS Plymouth launched a Westland Wasp HAS.Mk.1 helicopter, and HMS Brilliant launched a Westland Lynx HAS Mk 2. The Lynx launched a torpedo, and strafed the submarine with its pintle-mounted General Purpose Machine Gun; the Wessex also fired on the Santa Fe with its GPMG. The Wasp from HMS Plymouth as well as two other Wasps launched from HMS Endurance fired AS-12 ASM antiship missiles at the submarine, scoring hits. Santa Fe was damaged badly enough to prevent her from submerging. The crew abandoned the submarine at the jetty at King Edward Point on South Georgia.

With the Tidespring now far out to sea and the Argentine forces augmented by the submarine’s crew, Major Sheridan decided to gather the 76 men he had and make a direct assault that day. After a short forced march by the British troops, the Argentine forces surrendered without resistance. The message sent from the naval force at South Georgia to London was, “Be pleased to inform Her Majesty that the White Ensign flies alongside the Union Jack in South Georgia. God Save the Queen.” Prime Minister Thatcher broke the news to the media, telling them to “Just rejoice at that news!”

Black Buck raids

Main article: Operation Black Buck

RAF Avro Vulcan B.Mk.2 strategic bomber.

On 1 May British operations on the Falklands opened with the “Black Buck 1″ attack (of a series of five) on the airfield at Stanley. The overall effect of the raids on the war is difficult to determine, and the raids consumed precious tanker resources. The raids did minimal damage to the runway and damage to radars was quickly repaired. Commonly dismissed as post-war propaganda, Argentine sources were originally the source of claims that the Vulcan raids influenced Argentina to withdraw some of its Mirage IIIs from Southern Argentina to the Buenos Aires Defence Zone. This dissuasive effect was however watered down when British officials made clear that there would be no strikes on air bases in Argentina.

Of the five Black Buck raids, three were against Stanley Airfield, with the other two anti-radar missions using Shrike anti-radiation missiles.

Escalation of the air war

Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Sea Harrier FRS1. The flamboyant paint scheme was altered to a duller one en route South.

The Falklands had only three airfields. The longest and only paved runway was at the capital, Stanley, and even it was too short to support fast jets. Therefore, the Argentines were forced to launch their major strikes from the mainland, severely hampering their efforts at forward staging, combat air patrols and close air support over the islands. The effective loiter time of incoming Argentine aircraft was low, and they were later compelled to overfly British forces in any attempt to attack the islands.

The first major Argentine strike force comprised 36 aircraft (McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawks, Israel Aircraft Industries Daggers, English Electric B Mk 62 Canberras, and Dassault Mirage III escorts), and was sent on 1 May, in the belief that the British invasion was imminent or landings had already taken place. Only a section of Grupo 6 (flying IAI Dagger aircraft) found ships, which were firing at Argentine defences near the islands. The Daggers managed to attack the ships and return safely. This greatly boosted morale of the Argentine pilots, who now knew they could survive an attack against modern warships, protected by radar ground clutter from the Islands and by using a late pop-up profile.

Meanwhile, other Argentine aircraft were intercepted by BAE Sea Harriers operating from HMS Invincible. A Dagger and a Canberra were shot down.

Argentine Air Force Mirage IIIEA. Their lack of aerial refuelling capability prevented them from being used effectively over the islands in the air-air role.

Combat broke out between Sea Harrier FRS Mk 1 fighters of No. 801 Naval Air Squadron and Mirage III fighters of Grupo 8. Both sides refused to fight at the other’s best altitude, until two Mirages finally descended to engage. One was shot down by an AIM-9L Sidewinder air-to-air missile (AAM), while the other escaped but was damaged and without enough fuel to return to its mainland air base. The plane made for Stanley, where it fell victim to friendly fire from the Argentine defenders.

As a result of this experience, Argentine Air Force staff decided to employ A-4 Skyhawks and Daggers only as strike units, the Canberras only during the night, and Mirage IIIs (without air refuelling capability or any capable AAM) as decoys to lure away the British Sea Harriers. The decoying would be later extended with the formation of the Escuadron Fenix, a squadron of civilian jets flying 24 hours-a-day simulating strike aircraft preparing to attack the fleet. On one of these flights, an Air Force Learjet was shot down, killing the squadron commander, Vice Commodore Rodolfo De La Colina, the highest-ranking Argentine officer to die in the war.

A Royal Navy Sea King helicopter rescues Sqn Ldr Jerry Pook, after he was forced to bail out over the sea. His GR3 Harrier had been hit by ground fire west of Stanley on May 30.

Stanley was used as an Argentine strongpoint throughout the conflict. Despite the Black Buck and Harrier raids on Stanley airfield (no fast jets were stationed there for air defence) and overnight shelling by detached ships, it was never out of action entirely. Stanley was defended by a mixture of Surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems (Franco-German Roland and British Tigercat) and Swiss-built Oerlikon 35 mm twin anti-aircraft cannons. Lockheed Hercules transport night flights brought supplies, weapons, vehicles, and fuel, and airlifted out the wounded up until the end of the conflict. The few RN Sea Harriers were considered too valuable by day to risk in night-time blockade operations, and their Blue Fox radar was not an effective look-down over land radar.

The only Argentine Hercules shot down by the British was lost on 1 June when TC-63 was intercepted by a Sea Harrier in daylight when it was searching for the British fleet north-east of the islands after the Argentine Navy retired its last SP-2H Neptune due to airframe attrition.

Various options to attack the home base of the five Argentine Etendards at Ro Grande were examined and discounted (Operation Mikado), subsequently five Royal Navy submarines lined up, submerged, on the edge of Argentina 12-mile territorial limit to provide early warning of bombing raids on the British task force

Sinking of Belgrano

See also: Sinking of ARA General Belgrano

The ARA General Belgrano, sinking.

Two separate British naval task forces (surface vessels and submarines) and the Argentine fleet were operating in the neighbourhood of the Falklands, and soon came into conflict. The first naval loss was the World War II vintage Argentine light cruiser ARA General Belgrano. The nuclear-powered submarine HMS Conqueror sank Belgrano on 2 May. Three hundred and twenty-three members of Belgrano’s crew died in the incident. Over 700 men were rescued from the open ocean despite cold seas and stormy weather. The losses from Belgrano totalled just over half of the Argentine deaths in the Falklands conflict and the loss of the ARA General Belgrano hardened the stance of the Argentine government.

Regardless of controversies over the sinking, it had a crucial strategic effect: the elimination of the Argentine naval threat. After her loss, the entire Argentine fleet, with the exception of the conventional submarine ARA San Luis, returned to port and did not leave again for the duration of hostilities. The two escorting destroyers and the battle group centred on the aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo both withdrew from the area, ending the direct threat to the British fleet that their pincer movement had represented.

In a separate incident later that night, British forces engaged an Argentine patrol gunboat, the ARA Alferez Sobral. At the time, the Alferez Sobral was searching for the crew of the Argentine Air Force English Electric Canberra light bomber shot down on 1 May. Two Royal Navy Lynxes fired four Sea Skua missiles against her. Badly damaged and with eight crew dead, the Sobral managed to return to Puerto Deseado two days later, but the Canberra’s crew were never found.

Initial reports conflated the two incidents, contributing to confusion about the number of casualties and the identity of the vessel that sank. The British tabloid newspaper The Sun greeted the initial reports of the attack with the headline “GOTCHA”. This first edition was published before news was known that the Belgrano had actually sunk (reporting instead, erroneously, that the gunboat had sunk) and carried no reports of actual Argentine deaths. The headline was replaced in later editions by the slightly more tempered “Did 1,200 Argies drown?”.

Sinking of HMS Sheffield

See also: Sinking of HMS Sheffield

French-built Super Etendard of the Argentine Naval Aviation.

On 4 May, two days after the sinking of Belgrano, the British lost the Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield to fire following an Exocet missile strike. Sheffield had been ordered forward with two other Type 42s to provide a long-range radar and medium-high altitude missile picket far from the British carriers. She was struck amidships, with devastating effect, ultimately killing 20 crew members and severely injuring 24 others. The ship was abandoned several hours later, gutted and deformed by the fires that continued to burn for six more days. She finally sank outside the Maritime Exclusion Zone on 10 May.

The incident is described in detail by Admiral Sandy Woodward in his book One Hundred Days, Chapter One. Woodward was a former commanding officer of Sheffield.

The tempo of operations increased throughout the second half of May as United Nations attempts to mediate a peace were rejected by the British, who felt that any delay would make a campaign impractical in the South Atlantic storms. The destruction of Sheffield had a profound impact on the British public, bringing home the fact that the “Falklands Crisis”, as the BBC News put it, was now an actual “shooting war”.

SAS operations

British propaganda leaflet intended for Argentine soldiers dropped during the Falkland Islands War. Titled “Islands of the Condemned,” it warns Argentine naval ships and aircraft not to enter the Falkland Islands exclusion zone.

Given the threat to the British fleet posed by the Etendard-Exocet combination, plans were made to use Special Air Service troops to attack the home base of the five Etendards at Ro Grande, Tierra del Fuego. The operation was code named “Mikado”. The aim was to destroy the missiles and the aircraft that carried them, and to kill the pilots in their quarters. Two plans were drafted and underwent preliminary rehearsal: a landing by approximately fifty-five SAS in two C-130 Hercules aircraft directly on the runway at Rio Grande; and infiltration of twenty-four SAS by inflatable boats brought within a few miles of the coast by submarine. Neither plan was implemented; the earlier airborne assault plan attracted considerable hostility from some members of the SAS, who considered the proposed raid a suicide mission. Ironically, the Rio Grande area would be defended by four full-strength battalions of Marine Infantry of the Argentine Marine Corps of the Argentine Navy some of whose officers were trained in the UK by the SBS years earlier.

After the war, Argentine marine commanders admitted that they were waiting for some kind of landing by SAS forces but never expected a Hercules to land directly on their runways, although they would have pursued British forces even into Chilean territory if they were attacked.

An SAS reconnaissance team was dispatched to carry out preparations for a seaborne infiltration. A Westland Sea King helicopter carrying the assigned team took off from HMS Invincible on the night of 17 May, but bad weather forced it to land 50 miles (80 km) from its target, and the mission was aborted. The pilot flew to Chile and dropped off the SAS team, before setting fire to his helicopter and surrendering to the Chilean authorities. The discovery of the burnt-out helicopter attracted considerable international attention at the time.

On 14 May the SAS carried out the raid on Pebble Island at the Falklands, where the Argentine Navy had taken over a grass airfield for FMA IA 58 Pucar light ground attack aircraft and T-34 Mentors. The raid destroyed the aircraft there.

Landing at San Carlos Bomb Alley

Main article: Operation Sutton

Context of landings in the Falklands.

San Carlos landing sites.

An Argentine Air Force A-4C Skyhawk flying to the islands.

Gate guardian painted in the colours of the last A-4Q of the Argentine Navy to attack HMS Ardent. The pilot Lieutenant Marcelo Gustavo Mrquez was killed in action.

During the night on 21 May the British Amphibious Task Group under the command of Commodore Michael Clapp (Commodore, Amphibious Warfare – COMAW) mounted Operation Sutton, the amphibious landing on beaches around San Carlos Water, on the northwestern coast of East Falkland facing onto Falkland Sound. The bay, known as Bomb Alley by British forces, was the scene of repeated air attacks by low-flying Argentine jets.

The 4,000 men of 3 Commando Brigade were put ashore as follows: 2nd battalion of the Parachute Regiment (2 Para) from the RORO ferry Norland and 40 Commando (Royal Marines) from the amphibious ship HMS Fearless were landed at San Carlos (Blue Beach), 3 Para from the amphibious ship HMS Intrepid were landed at Port San Carlos (Green Beach) and 45 Commando from RFA Stromness were landed at Ajax Bay (Red Beach). Notably the waves of 8 LCUs and 8 LCVPs were led by Major Ewen Southby-Tailyour who had commanded the Falklands detachment only a year previously. 42 Commando on the ocean liner SS Canberra was a tactical reserve. Units from the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers etc. and tanks were also put ashore with the landing craft, the Round table class LSL and mexeflote barges. Rapier missile launchers were carried as underslung loads of Sea Kings for rapid deployment.

By dawn the next day they had established a secure beachhead from which to conduct offensive operations. From there Brigadier Thompson’s plan was to capture Darwin and Goose Green before turning towards Port Stanley. Now, with the British troops on the ground, the Argentine Air Force began the night bombing campaign against them using Canberra bomber planes until the last day of the war (14 June).

At sea, the paucity of the British ships’ anti-aircraft defences was demonstrated in the sinking of HMS Ardent on 21 May, HMS Antelope on 21 May, and MV Atlantic Conveyor (struck by two AM39 Exocets) on 25 May along with a vital cargo of helicopters, runway-building equipment and tents. The loss of all but one of the Chinook helicopters being carried by the Atlantic Conveyor was a severe blow from a logistics perspective. Also lost on this day was HMS Coventry, a sister to HMS Sheffield, whilst in company with HMS Broadsword after being ordered to act as decoy to draw away Argentinian aircraft from other ships at San Carlos Bay. HMS Argonaut and HMS Brilliant were badly damaged. However, many British ships escaped terminal damage because of the Argentine pilots’ bombing tactics.

To avoid the highest concentration of British air defences, Argentine pilots released ordnance from very low altitude, and hence their bomb fuzes did not have sufficient time to arm before impact. The low release of the retarded bombs (some of which had been sold to the Argentines by the British years earlier) meant that many never exploded, as there was insufficient time in the air for them to arm themselves. A simple free-fall bomb will, during a low altitude release, impact almost directly below the aircraft which is then within the lethal fragmentation zone of the resulting explosion. A retarded bomb has a small parachute or air brake that opens to reduce the speed of the bomb to produce a safe separation between the two. The fuze for a retarded bomb requires a minimum time over which the retarder is open to ensure safe separation. The pilots would have been aware of this, but due to the high concentration levels required to avoid SAMs and AAA, as well as any British Sea Harriers, many failed to climb to the necessary release point. The problem was solved by the improvised fitting of retarding devices, allowing low-level bombing attacks as employed on 8 June.

In his autobiographical account of the Falklands War, Admiral Woodward blames the BBC World Service for these changes to the bombs. The World Service reported the lack of detonations after receiving a briefing on the matter from a Ministry of Defence official. He describes the BBC as being more concerned with being “fearless seekers after truth” than with the lives of British servicemen. Colonel ‘H’. Jones levelled similar accusations against the BBC after they disclosed the impending British attack on Goose Green by 2 Para. Jones had threatened to lead the prosecution of senior BBC officials for treason but was unable to do so since he was himself killed in action around Goose Green.

Thirteen bombs hit British ships without detonating. Lord Craig, the retired Marshal of the Royal Air Force, is said to have remarked: “Six better fuses [sic] and we would have lost” although Ardent and Antelope were both lost despite the failure of bombs to explode. The fuzes were functioning correctly, and the bombs were simply released from too low an altitude. The Argentines lost 22 aircraft in the attacks.

Battle of Goose Green

East Falkland showing San Carlos bridgehead, Teal Inlet, Mt Kent and Mt Challenger.

Main article: Battle of Goose Green

From early on 27 May until 28 May, 2 Para, (approximately 500 men) with artillery support from 8 (Alma) Commando Battery (Royal Artillery), approached and attacked Darwin and Goose Green, which was held by the Argentine 12th Infantry Regiment. After a tough struggle that lasted all night and into the next day, 17 British and 47 Argentine soldiers were killed. In total 961 Argentine troops (including 202 Argentine Air Force personnel of the Condor airfield) were taken prisoners.

The BBC announced the taking of Goose Green on the BBC World Service before it had actually happened. It was during this attack that Lieutenant Colonel H. Jones, the commanding officer of 2 Para was killed while charging into the well-prepared Argentine positions at the head of his battalion. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

With the sizeable Argentine force at Goose Green out of the way, British forces were now able to break out of the San Carlos bridgehead. On 27 May, men of 45 Cdo and 3 Para started a loaded march across East Falkland towards the coastal settlement of Teal Inlet.

Special forces on Mount Kent

Meanwhile, 42 Commando prepared to move by helicopter to Mount Kent. Unknown to senior British officers, the Argentine generals were determined to tie down the British troops in the Mount Kent area, and on 27 May and 28 May they sent transport aircraft loaded with Blowpipe surface-to-air missiles and commandos (602nd Commando Company and 601st National Gendarmerie Special Forces Squadron) to Stanley. This operation was known as Operation AUTOIMPUESTA (Self-Determination-Initiative).

For the next week, the Special Air Service (SAS) and Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre of 3 Commando Brigade waged intense patrol battles with patrols of the volunteers’ 602nd Commando Company under Major Aldo Rico, normally 2IC of the 22nd Mountain Infantry Regiment. Throughout 30 May, Royal Air Force Harriers were active over Mount Kent. One of them Harrier XZ 963 flown by Squadron Leader Jerry Pook in responding to a call for help from D Squadron, attacked Mount Kent’s eastern lower slopes, and that led to its loss through small-arms fire. Pook was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Entrenched Argentine soldiers.

The Argentine Navy used their last AM39 Exocet missile attempting to attack HMS Invincible on 30 May. There are claims the missile struck, however the British have denied this, some citing that HMS Avenger shot it down.

On the 31 May, the Royal Marines Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre (M&AWC) defeated Argentine Special Forces at the Battle of Top Malo House. A 13-strong Argentine Army Commando detachment (Captain Jose Vercesi’s 1st Assault Section, 602nd Commando Company) found itself trapped in a small shepherd’s house at Top Malo. The Argentine commandos fired from windows and doorways and then took refuge in a stream bed 200 metres (700 ft) from the burning house. Completely surrounded, they fought 19 M&AWC marines under Captain Rod Boswell for forty-five minutes until, with their ammunition almost exhausted, they elected to surrender.

Three Cadre members were badly wounded. On the Argentine side there were two dead including Lieutenant Ernesto Espinoza and Sergeant Mateo Sbert (who were decorated for their bravery). Only five Argentines were left unscathed. As the British mopped up Top Malo House, down from Malo Hill came Lieutenant Fraser Haddow’s M&AWC patrol, brandishing a large Union Flag. One wounded Argentine soldier, Lieutenant Horacio Losito, commented that their escape route would have taken them through Haddow’s position.

Major Mario Castagneto’s 601st Commandos tried to move forward on Kawasaki motorbikes and commandeered Land Rovers to rescue 602nd Commando Company on Estancia Mountain. Spotted by 42 Commando of the Royal Marines, they were engaged with 81mm mortars and forced to withdraw to Two Sisters mountain. Captain Eduardo Villarruel on Estancia Mountain realised his position had become untenable and after conferring with fellow officers ordered a withdrawal.

The Argentine operation also saw the extensive use of helicopter support to position and extract patrols; the 601st Combat Aviation Battalion also suffered casualties. At about 11.00 a.m. on 30 May, an Aerospatiale SA-330 Puma helicopter was brought down by a shoulder-launched Stinger surface-to-air missile (SAM) fired by the SAS in the vicinity of Mount Kent. Six National Gendarmerie Special Forces were killed and eight more wounded in the crash.

As Brigadier Julian Thompson commented, “It was fortunate that I had ignored the views expressed by Northwood that reconnaissance of Mount Kent before insertion of 42 Commando was superfluous. Had D Squadron not been there, the Argentine Special Forces would have caught the Commando before deplaning and, in the darkness and confusion on a strange landing zone, inflicted heavy casualties on men and helicopters.”

Bluff Cove and Fitzroy

Main article: Bluff Cove Disaster

The abandoned hulk of RFA Sir Tristram in Fitzroy.

By 1 June, with the arrival of a further 5,000 British troops of the 5th Infantry Brigade, the new British divisional commander, Major General Jeremy Moore RM, had sufficient force to start planning an offensive against Stanley.[citation needed]

During this build-up, the Argentine air assaults on the British naval forces continued, killing 56. Of the dead, 32 were from the Welsh Guards on RFA Sir Galahad and RFA Sir Tristram on 8 June. According to Surgeon-Commander Rick Jolly of the Falklands Field Hospital, more than 150 men suffered burns and injuries of some kind in the attack, including, famously, Simon Weston.

The Guards were sent to support a dashing advance along the southern approach to Stanley. On 2 June a small advance party of 2 Para moved to Swan Inlet house in a number of Army Westland Scout helicopters. Telephoning ahead to Fitzroy, they discovered the area clear of Argentines and (exceeding their authority) commandeered the one remaining RAF Chinook helicopter to frantically ferry another contingent of 2 Para ahead to Fitzroy (a settlement on Port Pleasant) and Bluff Cove (a settlement confusingly, and perhaps ultimately fatally, on Port Fitzroy).

This uncoordinated advance caused planning nightmares for the commanders of the combined operation, as they now found themselves with a 30 miles (48 km) string of indefensible positions on their southern flank. Support could not be sent by air as the single remaining Chinook was already heavily oversubscribed. The soldiers could march, but their equipment and heavy supplies would need to be ferried by sea. Plans were drawn up for half the Welsh Guards to march light on the night of 2 June, whilst the Scots Guards and the second half of the Welsh Guards were to be ferried from San Carlos Water in the Landing Ship Logistics (LSL) Sir Tristram and the landing platform dock (LPD) Intrepid on the night of 5 June. Intrepid was planned to stay one day and unload itself and as much of Sir Tristram as possible, leaving the next evening for the relative safety of San Carlos. Escorts would be provided for this day, after which Sir Tristram would be left to unload using a Mexeflote (a powered raft) for as long as it took to finish.

Political pressure from above to not risk the LPD forced Commodore Clapp to alter this plan. Two lower-value LSLs would be sent, but without suitable beaches on which to land, Intrepid’s landing craft would need to accompany them to unload. A complicated operation across several nights with Intrepid and her sister ship Fearless sailing half-way to dispatch their craft was devised. The attempted overland march by half the Welsh Guards failed, possibly as they refused to march light and attempted to carry their equipment. They returned to San Carlos and were landed directly at Bluff Cove when Fearless dispatched her landing craft. Sir Tristram sailed on the night of 6 June and was joined by Sir Galahad at dawn on 7 June. Anchored 1,200 feet (370 m) apart in Port Pleasant, the landing ships were near Fitzroy, the designated landing point.

The landing craft should have been able to unload the ships to that point relatively quickly, but confusion over the ordered disembarcation point (the first half of the Guards going direct to Bluff Cove) resulted in the senior Welsh Guards infantry officer aboard insisting his troops be ferried the far longer distance directly to Port Fitzroy/Bluff Cove. The alternative was for the infantrymen to march via the recently repaired Bluff Cove bridge (destroyed by retreating Argentine combat engineers) to their destination, a journey of around seven miles (11 km).

On Sir Galahad’s stern ramp there was an argument about what to do. The officers on board were told they could not sail to Bluff Cove that day. They were told they had to get their men off ship and onto the beach as soon as possible as the ships were vulnerable to enemy aircraft. It would take 20 minutes to transport the men to shore using the LCU and Mexeflote. They would then have the choice to walk the 7 miles to Bluff Cove or wait until dark to sail there. The officers on board said they would remain on board until dark and then sail. They refused to take their men off the ship. They possibly doubted that the bridge had been repaired due to the presence on board Sir Galahad of the Royal Engineer Troop whose job it was to repair the bridge. The Welsh Guards were keen to rejoin the rest of their Battalion who were potentially facing the enemy without their support. They had also not seen any enemy aircraft since landing at San Carlos and may have been over confident in the air defences. Ewen Southby-Tailyour gave a direct order for the men to leave the ship and go to the beach. The order was ignored.

The longer journey time of the landing craft taking the troops directly to Bluff Cove and the squabbling over how the landing was to be performed caused enormous delay in unloading. This had disastrous consequences. Without escorts, having not yet established their air defence, and still almost fully laden, the two LSLs in Port Pleasant were sitting targets for two waves of Argentine A-4 Skyhawks.

The disaster at Port Pleasant (although often known as Bluff Cove) would provide the world with some of the most sobering images of the war as TV news video footage showed Navy helicopters hovering in thick smoke to winch survivors from the burning landing ships. British casualties were 48 killed and 115 wounded. 3 Argentine pilots were also killed. However, Argentine General Mario Menendez, commander of Argentine forces in the Falklands, was told that 900 British soldiers had died. He expected that the losses would cause enemy morale to drop and the British assault to stall.

The Fall of Stanley

British paratroopers guard Argentine prisoners of war cleaning up Port Stanley.

Notable battles:

Battle of Mount Harriet

Battle of Mount Longdon

Battle of Wireless Ridge

Battle of Mount Tumbledown

Battle of Two Sisters

On the night of 11 June after several days of painstaking reconnaissance and logistic build-up, British forces launched a brigade-sized night attack against the heavily defended ring of high ground surrounding Stanley. Units of 3 Commando Brigade, supported by naval gunfire from several Royal Navy ships, simultaneously assaulted in the Battle of Mount Harriet, Battle of Two Sisters, and Battle of Mount Longdon. Mount Harriet was taken at a cost of 2 British and 18 Argentine soldiers. At Two Sisters, the British faced both enemy resistance and friendly fire, but managed to capture their objectives. The toughest battle was at Mount Longdon. British forces were bogged down by assault rifle, mortar, machine gun, artillery fire, sniper fire, and ambushes. Despite this, the British continued their advance.

During this battle, 13 were killed when HMS Glamorgan, straying too close to shore while returning from the gun line, was struck by an improvised trailer-based Exocet MM38 launcher taken from ARA Segu destroyer by Argentine Navy technicians. On this day, Sgt Ian McKay of 4 Platoon, B Company, 3 Para died in a grenade attack on an Argentine bunker, which earned him a posthumous Victoria Cross. After a night of fierce fighting, all objectives were secured. Both sides suffered heavy losses.

The night of 13 June saw the start of the second phase of attacks, in which the momentum of the initial assault was maintained. 2 Para with tank support captured Wireless Ridge at the Battle of Wireless Ridge, at a loss of 3 British and 25 Argentine dead, and the 2nd battalion, Scots Guards captured Mount Tumbledown at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown, which cost the British 10 dead and the Argentines 30 dead.

A pile of discarded Argentine weapons in Port Stanley.

With the last natural defence line at Mount Tumbledown breached, the Argentine town defences of Stanley began to falter. In the morning gloom, one company commander got lost and his junior officers became despondent. Private Santiago Carrizo of the 3rd Regiment described how a platoon commander ordered them to take up positions in the houses and “if a Kelper resists, shoot him”, but the entire company did nothing of the kind.

The commander of the Argentine garrison in Stanley, Brigade General Mario Menndez, surrendered to Major General Jeremy Moore. 9,800 Argentine troops were made prisoners of war and some 4,167 placed under the command of Major Carlos Eduardo Carrizo-Salvadores,were repatriated to Argentina on the ocean liner Canberra alone.

Surrender of Corbeta Uruguay

On 20 June the British retook the South Sandwich Islands, (which involved accepting the surrender of the Southern Thule Garrison at the Corbeta Uruguay base) and declared hostilities to be over. Argentina had established Corbeta Uruguay in 1976, but prior to 1982 the United Kingdom had contested the existence of the Argentine base only through diplomatic channels.

Casualties

‘Monumento a los Cados en Malvinas’ (Monument for the fallen on the Falkland Islands) in Plaza San Martn, Buenos Aires.

The Argentine Military Cemetery, on East Falkland.

San Carlos War Memorial and Cemetery, Falkland islands.

In total 907 were killed during the 74 days of the conflict:

Argentina – 649

Ejrcito Argentino (Army) – 194 (16 officers, 35 NCOs and 143 conscript privates)

Armada de la Repblica Argentina (Navy) – 341 (including 321 in Belgrano and 4 naval aviators)

IMARA ( Marines ) – 34

Fuerza Area Argentina (Air Force) – 55 (including 31 pilots and 14 ground crew)

Gendarmera Nacional Argentina (Border Guard) – 7

Prefectura Naval Argentina (Coast Guard) – 2

Civilian sailors – 16

United Kingdom – 258

Royal Navy – 86 + 2 Hong Kong laundrymen (see below)

Royal Marines – 27 (2 officers, 14 NCOs and 11 marines)

Royal Fleet Auxiliary – 4 + 4 Hong Kong laundrymen
Merchant Navy – 6 + 2 Hong Kong sailors

British Army – 123 (7 officers, 40 NCOs and 76 privates)

Royal Air Force – 1 (1 officer)

Falklands Islands civilians – 3 (3 women killed by friendly fire)

Of the 86 Royal Navy personnel, 22 were lost in HMS Ardent, 19 + 1 lost in HMS Sheffield, 18 + 1 lost in HMS Coventry and 13 lost in HMS Glamorgan. Fourteen naval cooks were among the dead, the largest number from any one branch in the Royal Navy.

Thirty-three of the British Army’s dead came from the Welsh Guards, 21 from the 3rd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, 18 from the 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, 19 from the Special Air Service (SAS), 3 from Royal Signals and 8 from each of the Scots Guards and Royal Engineers.

As well as memorials on the islands, there is a memorial to the British war dead in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, London. There is a memorial at Plaza San Martn in Buenos Aires for the Argentine war dead, another one in Rosario, and a third one in Ushuaia.

During the war, British dead were put into plastic body bags and buried in mass graves. After the war, the bodies were removed, given funeral services, and reburied. Argentine dead were buried on the islands during the war. The United Kingdom offered to send the bodies back to Argentina, but Argentina refused, knowing that the remains would ensure a continuing Argentine presence on the islands. There is a cemetery for Argentine dead on the islands.

There were 1,188 Argentine and 777 British non-fatal casualties. Further information about the field hospitals and hospital ships is at Ajax Bay, List of hospitals and hospital ships of the Royal Navy, HMS Hydra. On the Argentine side beside the Military Hospital at Port Stanley, the Argentine Air Force Mobile Field Hospital was deployed at Comodoro Rivadavia and the Argentine Navy ships ARA Almirante Irizar and ARA Bahia Paraiso were converted to Hospital ships

Although some have been cleared, a substantial number of minefields still exist in the islands, such as this one at Port William on East Falkland.

There are still 125 uncleared minefields on the Falkland Islands and UXOs are scattered all over the battle fields due to the soft peat ground. According to forcesmemorial.org.uk via Falklands 25′s “Official Commemorative Publication” 30 British servicemen have died on the islands since the end of the hostilities.

See also Argentine and British ground forces in the Falklands War

Aftermath

Main article: Aftermath of the Falklands War

This brief war brought many consequences for all the parties involved, besides the great loss of human life and materiel.

In the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher won the time and support she required for her economic measures to take effect, national pride received a big boost of confidence and assurance, the Royal Navy proved its value once more. Subsequently, Nott’s proposed cuts to the Royal Navy were abandoned.

The islanders subsequently had full British citizenship restored in 1983, their lifestyle was improved by investments Britain made after the war and the liberalisation of economic measures that had been stalled through fear of angering Argentina. In 1985, a new constitution was enacted promoting self-government, which has continued to devolve power to the islanders.

The war for Argentina also had an effect in the form of avoiding a possible war with Chile and, more importantly, the return of democracy. It had a major social impact, destroying the military image as the moral reserve of the nation that they had maintained through most of the 20th century.

Public relations

Argentina

Selected war correspondents were regularly flown to Port Stanley in military aircraft to report on the war. Back in Buenos Aires newspapers and magazines faithfully reported on “the heroic actions of the largely conscript army and its successes”.

Officers from the intelligence services were attached to the newspapers and ‘leaked’ information confirming the official communiqus from the government. The glossy magazines Gente and Siete Das swelled to sixty pages with colour photographs of British warships in flames – many of them faked – and bogus eyewitness reports of the Argentine commandos’ guerrilla war on South Georgia 6 May and an already dead Pucar pilot’s attack on HMS Hermes (Lt. Daniel Antonio Jukic had been killed at Goose Green during a British air strike on 1 May). Most of the faked photos actually came from the tabloid press.

The Argentine troops on the Falkland Islands could read Gaceta Argentina newspaper intended to boost the morale among the servicemen. Some of its untruths could easily be unveiled by the soldiers who recovered corpses.

The Malvinas course united the Argentines in a patriotic atmosphere that protected the junta from critics, and even opposers of the military government supported Galtieri; Ernesto Sabato said: “Don’t be mistaken, Europe; it is not a dictatorship who is fighting for the Malvinas, it is the whole Nation. Opposers of the military dictatorship, like me, are fighting to extirpate the last trace of colonialism.” Even the Madres de Plaza de Mayo were exposed to death threats from ordinary people.

HMS Invincible was repeatedly sunk in the Argentine press, and on 30 April 1982 the Argentine magazine Tal Cual showed UK’s PM Thatcher with an eyepatch and the text: Pirate, witch and assassin. Guilty!

Three British reporters sent to Argentina to cover the war from the ‘other side’ were jailed until the end of the war.

United Kingdom

The Sun’s “Gotcha” headline.

Seventeen newspaper reporters, two photographers, two radio reporters and three television reporters with five technicians sailed with the Task Force to the war. The Newspaper Publishers’ Association selected them from among 160 applicants, excluding foreign media. Due to the hasty departure, not all of them were “the right stuff”: two journalists on HMS Invincible were interested in nothing but Queen Elizabeth II’s son Prince Andrew.

Merchant vessels had the civilian Inmarsat uplink, which enabled written telex and voice report transmissions via satellite. Canberra had a facsimile machine that was used to upload 202 pictures from the South Atlantic over the course of the war. The Royal Navy leased bandwidth on the US Defense Satellite Communications System for worldwide communications. Television demands a thousand times the data rate of telephone, but the MoD was unsuccessful in convincing the US to allocate more bandwidth. TV producers suspected that the enquiry was half-hearted; since the Vietnam War television pictures of casualties and traumatised soldiers were recognised as having negative propaganda value. However the technology only allowed uploading a single frame per 20 minutes – and only if the military satellites were allocated 100 % to television transmissions. Videotapes were shipped to Ascension Island, where a broadband satellite uplink was available, resulting in TV coverage being delayed by three weeks.

The press was very dependent on the Royal Navy, and was censored on site. Many reporters in the UK knew more about the war than those with the Task Force.

The Royal Navy expected Fleet Street to conduct a World War Two style positive news campaign but the majority of the British media, especially the BBC, reported the war in a neutral fashion. These reporters referred to “the British troops” and “the Argentinian troops” instead of “our lads” and the dehumanised “Argies”. The two main tabloid papers presented opposing viewpoints: The Daily Mirror was decidedly anti-war, whilst The Sun became notorious for its jingoistic and xenophobic headlines, including the 20 April headline “Stick It Up Your Junta!”, and was condemned for the “Gotcha” headline following the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano.

Cultural impact

Main article: Cultural impact of the Falklands War

Newsweek magazine cover, 19 April 1982. HMS Hermes pictured.

There were wide-ranging influences on popular culture in both the UK and Argentina, from the immediate postwar period to the present. The words yomp and Exocet entered the British vernacular as a result of the war. The Falklands War also provided material for theatre, film and TV drama and influenced the output of musicians including (among others) Iron Maiden, Pink Floyd, New Order, Gang of Four, Joe Jackson, Crass, Dire Straits (the song Brothers in arms was played in memory of the dead soldiers), New Model Army, The Levellers, Steve Dahl, Latin Quarter, the Super Furry Animals, and Elvis Costello, whose song “Shipbuilding”, sung by Robert Wyatt, reached the British top 40.

See also

Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute

Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands (1833)

Beagle conflict between Chile and Argentina in 1978

Operation Soberana Argentine Military Planning against Chile

British logistics in the Falklands War

Argentine air forces in the Falklands War

British air services in the Falklands War

Operation Algeciras A failed plan conceived by the Argentine military to send some Montoneros to sabotage the British military facilities in Gibraltar.

Notes

^ “Falklands 25: Background Briefing”. Ministry of Defence. http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FactSheets/Falklands25BackgroundBriefing.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 

^ “:: Ministerio de Defensa – Repblica Argentina ::” (in Spanish). www.mindef.gov.ar. http://www.mindef.gov.ar/veteranos Malvinas.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01. 

^ Location: “Falklands War Falkland Islands”alkland Islands,slas Malvinas(linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War)

^ Location: “Falklands War South Georgia”outh Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands,K(linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War)

^ a b “Falkland Islands – A history of the 1982 conflict”. Raf.mod.uk. 2004-10-01. http://www.raf.mod.uk/falklands/rollofhonour.html. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Argentine Foreign Office 11 feb 2010

^ Constitucin Nacional: “La Nacin Argentina ratifica su legtima e imprescriptible soberana sobre las Islas Malvinas, Georgias del Sur y Sandwich del Sur y los espacios martimos e insulares correspondientes, por ser parte integrante del territorio nacional”

^ “Cmo evitar que Londres convierta a las Malvinas en un Estado independiente”. Clarin.com. http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/zona/2007/04/01/z-03415.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ “Argentina – the horrors of a dictatorial past live on – Radio Netherlands Worldwide – English”. Radionetherlands.nl. 2006-03-30. http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/arg060330mc. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ (in Spanish) Malvinas, La Trama Secreta. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana/Planeta. 1983. ISBN 9789503700068. [page needed]

^ “Que tena que ver con despertar el orgullo nacional y con otra cosa. La junta altieri me lo dijo nunca crey que los britnicos daran pelea. l crea que Occidente se haba corrompido. Que los britnicos no tenan Dios, que Estados Unidos se haba corrompido… Nunca lo pude convencer de que ellos no slo iban a pelear, que adems iban a ganar.” (“This was neither about national pride nor anything else. The junta altieri told me never believed the British would respond. He thought the Western World was corrupt. That the British people had no God, that the US was corrupt… I could never convince him that the British would not only fight back but also win [the war].”) La Nacin / Islas Malvinas Online. “Haig: “Malvinas fue mi Waterloo”". http://www.malvinasonline.com.ar/g82/artic/aresp004.htm#Haig. Retrieved September 21, 2006. [dead link] (Spanish)

^ “Ministerio de Educacin, Ciencia y Tecnologa de la Nacin” (PDF). http://www.me.gov.ar/curriform/publica/sirlin_conv_dictadura.pdf. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ a b c Jimmy Burns: The land that lost its heroes, 1987, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 0-7475-0002-9

^ “”En Buenos Aires, la Junta comenz a estudiar la posibilidad de ocupar las Islas Malvinas y Georgias antes de que los britnicos pudieran reforzarlas””. Portierramaryaire.com. http://www.portierramaryaire.com/arts/malvinas_1.php. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Briley, Harold (9 April 1997). “Obituary: Captain Nicholas Barker” (subscription required for online access via NewsUK newspaper archive website). The Independent: p. 16. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_dat=xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:newsuk&rft_id=xri:newsuk:newsart:36868535. Retrieved 23 September 2009. 

^ “high cost of cuts, The | Spectator, The | Find Articles at BNET.com”. Findarticles.com. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199705/ai_n8781734. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Margolis, Laurie (2007-04-02). “UK | How BBC man scooped invasion news”. BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6514011.stm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ One Hundred Days Woodward, Admiral Sandy (1992) Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, p.72. ISBN 9781557506511; ISBN 9781557506528. Cited in To Rule The Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World Herman, A (2004) Harper Collins, New York, p.560

^ Grimmett, Richard F. (1 June 1999). “Foreign Policy Roles of the President and Congress”. U.S. Department of State. http://fpc.state.gov/6172.htm#President_as_Initiator. Retrieved 2010-02-24. 

^ Brown 1987, p. 110

^ a b “Submarine Operations during the Falklands War – US Naval War College”. http://handle.dtic.mil/100.2/ADA279554. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ “1982: Marines land in South Georgia”. BBC. 25 April 1982. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/25/newsid_2503000/2503977.stm. Retrieved 20 June 2005. 

^ “… to get twenty-one bombs to Port Stanley is going to take about one million, one hundred thousand pounds of fuel – equalled[sic] about 137,000 gallons. That was enough fuel to fly 260 Sea Harrier bombing missions over Port Stanley. Which in turn meant just over 1300 bombs. Interesting stuff!” page 186 in Sharkey Ward: Sea Harrier over the Falklands, 1992, Cassell Military Paperbacks, ISBN 0-304-35542-9

^ “Propaganda was, of course, used later to try to justify these missions: ‘The Mirage IIIs were redrawn from Southern Argentina to Buenos Aires to add to the defences there following the Vulcan raids on the islands.’ Apparently the logic behind this statement was that if the Vulcan could hit Port Stanley, the[sic] Buenos Aires was well within range as well and was vulnerable to similar attacks. I never went along with that baloney. A lone Vulcan or two running in to attack Buenos Aires without fighter support would have been shot to hell in quick time.”-”Mirage IIIs were in evidence near the islands on several occasions during the conflict, either escorting the Neptune reconnaissance missions or on ‘interference’ flights that attempted to draw CAP attention away from air-to-ground attacks.”-”Suffice it to say that you didn’t need more than one or two Mirage IIIs to intercept a Vulcan attack on Buenos Aires”-”It would have taken much more than a lone Vulcan raid to upset Buenos Aires” pages 247-48 in Sea Harrier over the Falklands

^ “Offensive Air Operations Of The Falklands War”. Globalsecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/DWF.htm. “”As a result of these heavy losses…it was decided to pull the Mirage III’s back to the mainland to stand alert for a possible Vulcan attack.”" 

^ “The Falkland Islands Conflict, 1982: Air Defense Of The Fleet”. Globalsecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/HJA.htm. “”Finally, the bombing raids caused the Argentines to fear an air attack on the mainland, causing them to retain some Mirage aircraft and Roland missiles for defense.”" 

^ “La familia Mirage” (in Spanish), Aeroespacio (Fuerza Aerea Argentina), ISSN 0001-9127, http://www.aeroespacio.com.ar/site/anteriores/520-528/520/mirage.htm, “”Los M III deban defender el territorio continental argentino de posibles ataques de los bombarderos Vulcan de la RAF, brindar escolta a los cazabombarderos de la FAA, e impedir los ataques de aviones de la Royal Navy y de la RAF sobre las Malvinas.”

(“The M III would defend the Argentine mainland against possible attacks by Vulcan bombers from the RAF, providing escort of fighter bombers to the FAA, and to prevent attacks by aircraft of the Royal Navy and RAF on the Falklands.”)” 

^ “The Falkland Islands Conflict, 1982: Air Defense Of The Fleet”. Globalsecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1984/HJA.htm. “”Unfortunately the British Secretary of State for Defence announced sometime later that Britain would not bomb targets on the Argentine mainland. This statement was undoubtedly welcomed by the Argentine military command because it permitted the very limited number of Roland SAM’s to be deployed around the airfield at Stanley.”" 

^ Rodrguez Mottino, Horacio: La Artillera Argentina en Malvinas. Ed. Clo, 1985. Page 170

^ “Fuerza Area Argentina”. Fuerzaaerea.mil.ar. http://www.fuerzaaerea.mil.ar/conflicto/caidos/baja01.html. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ “noticias”. Madryn.gov.ar. 2009-04-02. http://www.madryn.gov.ar/noticias.php?newsid=3213. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Sharkey Ward (2003). Sea Harrier Over The Falklands. Cassell. ISBN 0-304-35542-9. 

^ “Fuerza Area Argentina”. Fuerzaaerea.mil.ar. http://www.fuerzaaerea.mil.ar/conflicto/dias/jun01.html. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ “ASN Aircraft accident description Lockheed C-130H Hercules TC-63 – Pebble Island”. Aviation-safety.net. http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19820601-0&lang=en. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Evans, Michael (November 27, 2007). “Underwater and undercover: how nuclear subs were first line of Falklands defence”. Times Online. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2950936.ece. 

^ Admiral Sandy Woodward, One Hundred Days, page 8. ISBN 9780007134670

^ “The SAS vs the Exocet”. www.eliteukforces.info. 2007-10-27. http://www.eliteukforces.info/articles/sas-versus-exocets.php#prof. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Smith, Michael (08 Mar 2002). “SAS ‘suicide mission’ to wipe out Exocets”. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/03/08/nfalk08.xml. 

^ Middlebrook, p. 75.

^ La Infantera de Marina de la Armada Argentina en el Conflicto del Atlntico Sur, ISBN 987-433-641-2

^ Thatcher in the dark on sinking of Belgrano – Times Online[dead link]

^ Location: “Bomb Alley”an Carlos Water,alkland Islands(linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War#Landing_at_San_Carlos_.E2.80.94_Bomb_Alley)

^ Yates, David (2006). Bomb Alley – Falkland Islands 1982. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781844154173. [page needed]

^ “Americas | Charles ends Falklands tour on sombre note”. BBC News. 1999-03-15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/297414.stm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Rumley, Leesa (2007-06-01). “Captain Hart Dyke, Commanding Officer of ”HMS Coventry””. BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6705387.stm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ a b Sandy Woodward (2003). One Hundred Days: The Memoirs of the Falklands Battle Group Commander. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-0071-3467-3; ISBN 9781557506511; ISBN 9781557506528.. 

^ “British Ships Sunk and Damaged – Falklands War 1982″. Naval-history.net. http://www.naval-history.net/F62brshipslost.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ Gethin Chamberlain (5 April 2002). “Would British forces be able to retake the Falklands today?” (subscription required to access archive service). The Scotsman: p. 12. Archived from the original on 5 April 2002. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&res_dat=xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:newsuk&rft_id=xri:newsuk:newsart:112991016. 

^ “Falklands Conflict : Battles : History”. Royal Navy. 1982-04-02. http://www.royal-navy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.3956. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ [May 21/27th: 9 Dagger, 5 A-4C, 3 A-4Q, 3 A-4B & 2 Pucara ]

^ Location: “Mount Kent”ount Kent,alkland Islands(linkback:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War#Special_forces_on_Mount_Kent)

^ London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 49134, p. 12854, 8 October 1982. Retrieved on 19 February 2010.

^ “Argentine Aircraft in the Falklands”. Britains-smallwars.com. http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Falklands/Exocet.html. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ “Argentine Air Force – Group 5″. Skyhawk.org. http://www.skyhawk.org/2e/argentina/argentina-af4th5th.htm. Retrieved 2010-02-07. 

^ “Super Etendard”. Operationcorporate.com. 2007-05-29. http://www.operationco…

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