Argentine retaking of the Falklands? Fat chance
In recent months there has been some speculation that Argentina was girding up their military, which has been stuck in about 1981 for the past several decades, for a possible Falklands Islands War Part II.
45 Commando Royal Marines on their famous “yomp” across East Falkland, May 1982.
This comes from a pending sale of 12 SU-24s from Russia (in exchange for commodities) and the even further mythical sale of 24 JAS Gripens from Brazil.
Well, one well-known British Army Colonel weighs in on that with kind of a laugh.
“So what would the addition of the Russian aircraft mean to the Argentine military? In my opinion, their impact would be negligible. The aircraft in question – Sukhoi SU 24s (NATO designation ‘FENCER’) – are old ladies with distinctly dated capabilities. They entered service with the Soviet Union in 1974 and were familiar to me when I served in Berlin in 1982. Those nations where they are still in service – for example Iran, Sudan and Kazakhstan – are not major air powers. ”
And it just gets better from there…