Warning of Complacency Over the Falklands

Con Coughlin at The Telegraph warns against British complacency over Argentina's saber rattling.

For, far-fetched as it might seem, it is possible that the latest diplomatic spat between London and Buenos Aires might spill over into something rather more serious. Britain’s defence of the Falklands is predicated on the twin assumptions that our military presence acts as a suitable deterrent to Argentine adventurism, and that the Argentines have no interest in revisiting old battlegrounds.

The four RAF Typhoon interceptors on permanent stand-by at Mount Pleasant Airfield are more than capable of seeing off any conventional attack by air or sea. A Royal Navy warship patrols the area, usually with submarine support, while the Army provides a permanent garrison whose ranks are shortly to be joined by the Duke of Cambridge in his capacity as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot.

The Duke’s six-week deployment, which starts next month, has raised hackles in Buenos Aires, where it has been called a “provocative act”. The possibility that the Argentines might try to pull off a daring operation to capture the islands cannot be fully discounted.

... On a more serious note, Major-General Julian Thompson, who commanded Britain’s victorious ground assault in 1982, gave a recent talk during which he set out a convincing scenario in which the Argentines capture or destroy the Mount Pleasant air strip, thereby denying Britain the ability to send reinforcements. With no aircraft carrier available until 2025, the prospects of staging a repeat of the naval task force that liberated the islands in 1982 are zero.