A couple of interesting news-worthy (to you guys) videos just hit, both F-16 related.
First up, Boeing just announced that it has wrapped up its 10-year program taking old Gen Dyn F-16A/Bs and converting them into QF-16 remote-controlled target drones. The last of 127 Boeing-modded QF-16s recently made its final delivery to the U.S. Air Force and is expected to fly until at least 2030.
The video includes some cool unmanned cockpit clips.
Meanwhile, in Argentina…
The Royal Danish Air Force has uploaded a superb 360-degree view from the cockpit of the new (to) Argentina F-16s during the recent flyover of Buenos Aires.
Six of the ultimately 24 refirb’d circa-1980s Danish-operated F-16A/B MLU Block 10/15s have arrived in Argentina earlier this month, with the U.S. providing backing with training, maintenance, and long-term support. The latter is also probably insurance against their possible use against the
Still impressive and hard to believe it is a half-century ago.
A No. 1 (F) Squadron, RAF, Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR.1A, deployed to an ersatz field position at Ladyville in the Crown Colony of Belize, formerly British Honduras, in November 1975. The deployment was one of many that stretched through 1993 to dissuade neighboring Guatemala from moving in.
This real-world deployment was only six years after No. 1 became the world’s first operator of a V/STOL combat aircraft. (RAF photo).
Formed as No. 1 Balloon Company in 1878 and Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, No. 1 Squadron became a heavier-than-air outfit in May 1912 with the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps, the only veteran unit in the RFC.
Minting at least 31 flying aces in the Great War, flying no less than 10 types in the process, No. 1 started WWII in Hurricane Mk. 1s and finished it in Spitfire Mk.IXs while picking up another dozen aces. Graduating to jets with the Gloster Meteor in 1946 (and training Robin Olds while on an exchange tour), No. 1 became the first V/STOL fighter unit in the world in 1969 when they fielded the Harrier.
While they never saw combat in Belize, having deployed there with their innovative “jump jets” numerous times, 10 Harrier GR.3s of the squadron did make it to the Falklands, and flew 126 sorties, including the first RAF LGB combat mission, the unit’s first combat since the Suez Crisis in 1956.
Three camouflaged and aardvark-nosed Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3s of No. 1 Squadron RAF are positioned in the foreground alongside seven gray-blue Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm British Aerospace Sea Harrier FRS.1s and a Sea King HAS.5 of 820 Naval Air Squadron on the flight deck of the light carrier HMS Hermes (R 12). This scene took place on the day No. 1 Squadron joined the ship in the South Atlantic on 19 May 1982. The first Harrier GR3 is armed with a 1,000lb laser-guided bomb (GBU-16 Paveway II) on its outer pylons. At the center of the deck is Sea Harrier FRS.1 (XZ499) of 800 Naval Air Squadron, the aircraft in which LCDR Smith downed an Argentine Skyhawk. RAF MOD 45163716
Switching post-Falklands to Harrier IIs (GR5, GR7, and GR9s), they only hung them up in 2011 when the type was retired in RAF service, logging 42 years as a Harrier unit, a record since surpassed by a few USMC squadrons.
Since then, they have flown Typhoon FGR4s, first out of RAF Leuchars and later RAF Lossiemouth.
Appropriately, the squadron’s motto is In omnibus princeps (Latin for ‘First in all things’).
We covered last year the U.S.-approved $300 million purchase of a group of 24 circa 1980s F-16A/B MLU Block 10/15s from Denmark to revitalize the country’s air power.
Argentine F-16BM Block 15 MLU ex-Royal Danish AF, seen in Denmark in April 2024
While the Argentine Air Force and Navy fielded a formidable force of over 130 combat aircraft that got involved in the Falklands in 1982– 27 IAI Dagger (Mirage Vs), 16 Mirage IIIEAs, 8 B.62 Canberras, 24 IA 58A Pucara COIN aircraft, 54 A-4B/C/Q Skyhawks, 6 Aermacchi MB.339As, and four Super Étendards– they are all gone.
And reassembled with a new livery and display ordnance this week
However, this mockup was shown with two AMRAAMs, another two Sidewinders, two drop tanks, and two domestically made FAS-850 Dardo 3 guided glide bombs, a new little gem that has a touted 200km range.
Note Dardo between the Sidewinder and drop tanks
The country is expecting to have a six-frame half-squadron ready to take to the air by the end of the year, when they will be the first supersonic fighters available since they retired the last of their Mirage IIIs a decade ago.
Ambuscade, the last of the Amazon class, is the sister ship of both HMS Ardent and Antelope, which were lost in the Falklands to Argentine air strikes.
The Pakistani Navy donated Ambuscade to the cause last year. It has served there as PNS Tariq (D181) since 1993. The Falklands vet is to leave the Karachi Naval Dockyard in February 2025 and will be moved to a private mooring so preparation work can begin for her journey back to Britain.
A team from the UK will be heading to Karachi to carry out some of the work required. The frigate will subsequently make the 6,000nm journey on a heavy-lift vessel back to the Clyde.
It has not yet been decided exactly where the ship will be berthed in the long term but Glasgow City Council is supportive and there are several sites under consideration. There are two main options, either at Custom House Quay, Inverclyde or at the Govan Graving Docks when renovated. A temporary berth might also be found at the Riverside Museum area close to the tall ship Glenlee.
In the past couple of years, Turkey has decided to turn Anadolu, their 25,000-ton/762-foot variant of the Spanish LHA Juan Carlos I, into a floating airdrome for their domestically-produced UCAVs such as the Bayraktar TB-3, an aircraft roughly equivalent to a late model General Atomics MQ-1 Predator.
Plans have shown the ‘phib with 40 TB3s on deck, not counting those that could be stored below deck.
Then came news from Thailand that the small 1990s-built ski-jump equipped 11,500-ton HTMS Chakri Naruebet, long stripped of its working second-hand AV-8S Harriers, is to be upcycled to operate drones.
HTMS Chakri Naruebet with locally made MARCUS drone
Further, the Portuguese Navy is in the design phase of a 10,000-ton multifunctional LPH that can carry UAVs as its principal air wing.
The fixed-wing UAVs are launched via a ski jump. Portuguese Navy image.
The mothership is shown with two notional fixed-wing UAVs on deck (they look like MQ-1C Grey Eagle but the new MQ-9B STOL may be a better fit) as well as 6 quad-copter UAVs and one NH90 helicopter. The design seems to lack an aviation hangar. Below decks is a modular area to launch and recover AUV, UUV, and USV. Portuguese Navy image.
Via Naval New. The previously unreported drone carrier (A) is longer but narrower than two drone motherships (C, D) built in the same yard. There are also several high-tech target barges (B, F), including one miming an aircraft carrier (E).
We need American CVE-Qs
It seems that a quick program to rapidly construct a series of navalized drone-carrying jeep carriers should be pushed through.
Think this but with UAVs:Â
USS Altamaha (CVE-18) transporting Army P-51 Mustang fighters off San Francisco, California on 16 July 1943. NH 106575
Commercial hull. Perhaps even taken up from the glut of vessels already for sale at just above scrap value. Minimal conversion reconstruction while resisting the desire to add all sorts of gee-whiz gear and weapons. Could even go supersized and use converted VLCCs and supertankers.Â
Minimally manned (15-20 vessel crew, 20-30 UAV techs and operators). Expendable vessel if push comes to shove, with the crew given ready access to a couple of quick-release free-fall lifeboats.
Fill it with a few dozen MQ-9B STOLs until something more advanced comes along.Â
This General Atomics rendering shows it running from an LHA, but surely a smaller and more dedicated CVE-style vessel could work. Note the underwing armament
DARPA is working on its Ancillary Program of six different design concepts for a low-weight, large-payload, long-endurance VTOL uncrewed X-plane to operate with the fleet, so the idea of an all-UAS Carrier Air Wing is just over the horizon.Â
ANCILLARY design concept renderings from all six performers, clockwise from lower left: Sikorsky, Karem Aircraft, Griffon Aerospace, Method Aeronautics, AeroVironment, Northrop Grumman.
Add a couple of CVEQs to a DDG (commodore and AAW commander) and LCS (Surface Warfare commander) for an instant sea control group.
The British 3 Commando Brigade (3 Cdo Bde) dates back to 1942 when it was (eventually) composed of four assorted Commando battalions (No. 1 and No. 5 Army, and Nos. 42 and 45 Royal Marines) and their support units.
Royal Marine Commandos attached to 3rd Division moved inland from Sword Beach on the Normandy coast, on 6 June 1944. IWM B 5071
Post-war, the Army Commandos were disbanded but the RMs kept on trucking and participated in the Suez fiasco, the last time for 26 years that it operated in combat as a full brigade.
Captain Griffiths inspecting troops of 45 Royal Marine Commando in full battle equipment, preparatory to their being landed at Port Said from HMS THESEUS, Suez Operation, 1956. Note the desert goggles and A 33635
It is perhaps most famous for its service in the Falklands in 1982.
In that epic campaign, bolstered by 2 and 3 Para along with two SAS Squadrons, its three RM Commandos (40, 42, and 45) along with the Rigid Raiders, three SBS sections, the school staff and trainees of the Mountain and Arctic Warfare cadre, and Commando-trained Army support units (29 Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery; 59 Independent Commando Sqn, Royal Engineers, T-battery 12 Air Defense Regiment, 30 Signal Regiment) 3 Commando did most of the heavy lifting to liberate the islands. Sure, 5 Guards Bde got in on the final push on Stanley– particularly the Scots Guards who stormed Tumbledown and the Welsh Guards who faced the disaster that was Bluff Cove– but 3 Commando effectively won the war on the ground.
A column of 45 Royal Marine Commandos yomp towards Port Stanley. Royal Marine Peter Robinson, carrying the Union Jack flag on his backpack as identification, brings up the rear. This photograph, taken in black and white and color, became one of the iconic images of the Falklands Conflict. IWM FKD 2028
Following the Falklands, 3 Commando saw a renaissance in support of amphibious operations.
Whereas most of the aging landing ships and carriers used in 1982 had been slated for either layup or disposal, the Admiralty dug into its purse and in the early 1990s funded a new 21,000-ton LPH (HMS Ocean), two new 20,000-ton LPDs– HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark— followed shortly later by four new 16,000-ton Bay-class landing ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and six 23,000-ton Point-class roll-on/roll-off sealift ships permanently contracted to the MoD for use as needed.
A force of 13 brand-new ‘phibs to carry a brigade. No problem. Further, with the obsolescence of this new force not expected until the 2030s, it should have continued to not be a problem. After all, the two 16,000-ton Fearless-class landing platform docks, which entered service in the early 1960s and spearheaded the amphibious operations in the Falklands racked up a combined 69 years of service.Â
This set up 3 Commando for great success in 2000’s Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone and then during Operation Telic during the 2003 Iraq War– where it made its first bridge-sized amphibious assault in over 20 years by landing on the strategically key Al-Faw peninsula in south-east Iraq.
Royal Marine Commandoes from 42 Commando hit MAMYOKO BEACH from Sea King helicopters of 846 Naval Air Squadron, in a demonstration of amphibious power during Operation Silkman in Freetown, Sierra Leone 13 Nov 2000. MOD image by Royal Navy PO Jim Gibson (Click to big up)
Now, following two decades of deployments abroad in places well ashore such as Afghanistan, made worse by successive waves of budget cuts, the RN’s amphibious warfare fleet has been hollowed out.
The mighty HMS Ocean was sold to Brazil in 2018 where she will no doubt remain the crown jewel of that navy for decades.
One of the four Bays (RFA Largs Bay) was sold to Australia. Should Bulwark and Albion be scrapped, this remaining trio of 18-knot RFA-manned LPDs can only accommodate about 350 men each in a landing but would be the core of any British amphibious ready group.
Two of the six Point-class RO/ROs have been released from contract with the other four set to have their contracts expire this year.
In a decade, the 13-ship RN gator fleet has dwindled to possibly as few as three deployable ships, although all three may not be deployable at the same time.Â
PHM Atlântico (former HMS Ocean), the Brazilian Navy’s new flagship, sails into its new home in Rio, in 2018
As for 3 Commando itself, while it now consists of five Commandos (40, 42, 43, 45, and 47) that is something of a paper tiger.
This is because 43 Cdo is a fleet protection unit safeguarding the SSBN base at Faslane, 45 Cdo is a fleet protection unit for Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels around the globe, and 47 Cdo is a small boat and training group akin to a U.S. Navy Assault Craft Unit.Â
That only leaves 40 Cdo and 42 Cdo as the only true deployable six-company battalion-sized units in the “brigade.” A third battlion would have to come from either a mustered 45 Cdo reinforced by 43 Cdo elements– which would shortstaff their respective current missions– or a “round out” from the 1st Marine Combat Group of the Dutch Korps Mariniers which has been working with 3 Cdo Bde for decades, the latter unlikely outside of a NATO mission. At least 3 Commando is still supported by a mix of Army artillery, engineer, and support units, freeing up Marines for pulling triggers.
While there is a Royal Marines Reserve, the 600-strong service is spread out in 17 small drilling units around the UK — not a cohesive and immediately combat deployable Commando– and is primarily used for augmentation missions.
So it doesn’t much matter if all they had to deploy on were a couple of slow Bay-class LPDs anyway, as the Royal Marines don’t have enough bootnecks to fill them anyway.
The future for the RMs, at least in terms of afloat deployments, is likely just small reinforced company-sized groups operating from their dwindling few amphibious warfare vessels, and even smaller platoon-sized groups on the RN’s five Batch 2 River-class offshore patrol vessels (Forth, Medway, Trent, Tamar, and Spey) which are being assigned to wave the flag in the Caribbean and Pacific as the country only has about 15 frigates left and they are otherwise needed to screen its two carriers.
That sounds like a great way to get a company or platoon-sized force wiped out if things ever get real.
Royal Navy vessel HMS Spey (P234) (foreground) conducts coordinated ship maneuvers with U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Munro (WMSL 755) on Sept. 17, 2023, in the South China Sea. The River class OPV can carry up to 50 Marines and are being extensively deployed around the globe to be the RN’s “peace cruisers.” (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Petty Officer Brett Cote)
Probably time to let the Army’s 3 Commando units switch over to support the new four-battalion Ranger Regiment, which could be the unwritten plan all along.
The Pakistani Navy recently released a well-done (English language) short documentary about the third PNS Tariq (D 181), which is the former Amazon-class (Type 21) frigate HMS Ambuscade (F172).
Acquired by the Pakistani Navy in 1993 sans installed Exocet and Seacat missiles, she was initially laid down at Yarrow in Scotland (Yard No. 1008) in September 1971 and entered service in 1975.
Among a ton of Cold War exploits, Ambuscade took part in the Falklands War of 1982— firing hundreds of rounds of 4.5-inch shells in NGFS missions and chasing at least two suspected enemy sonar contacts– as well service on the old Armilla Patrol and as the Belize Guardship back in the day.
Of the eight Amazons commissioned in the late 1960s-early 1970s, two (HMS Antelope sunk on 24 May 1982 and HMS Ardent on 22 May 1982) were lost in the Falklands.
The remaining six were transferred to Pakistan after the fall of the Berlin Wall and saw much service there. They have since been decommissioned, with no less than four already disposed of in SINKEXs.
Tariq/Ambuscade was the last of her type to leave service, decommissioned on 5 August 2023, her name to be used for a new corvette.
The Pakistan Navy has already donated the now 48-year-old frigate to the Cylde Naval Heritage Group and plans to bring her back to Scotland.Â
The good news is that she is still in reportedly good material condition, and was steaming as late as this summer. Further, at just 2,800 tons and 384 feet oal, she has a small footprint. All positive signs for a budding museum ship.Â
The Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard (or SuE) first flew in 1974. It was intended from the beginning as a lightweight single-engined, single-seat, carrier-borne strike fighter aircraft to replace the older transonic Étendard IVM (Dassault’s first solely navy aircraft), which had been in service with the French Navy since 1962 on the service’s newly built Clemenceau-class aircraft carriers, the Clemenceau and Foch.
French aircraft carriers Foch (R99) and Clemenceau (R98) in 1977
The original Dassault Étendard IVM was operated by the French Navy from 1960 to 1987. A total of just 69 fighters and 21 photo reconnaissance aircraft were acquired and this is one of the latter, as seen at Pima by me earlier this year.
While the Jaguar M, a navalized variant of the Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar, was intended to be the Étendard IVM’s replacement, and doubtless would have been successful…
SEPECAT Jaguar M in July 1970 take-offs and landings from the French carrier Clemenceau
…Dassault swooped in and pulled out the W with the updated Super Étendard and the French would keep flying them for generations.
While the legacy Etendard IVM carried Nord AS.30 (529-pound warhead to 7.4 miles) and AS.20 (73-pound warhead to 5.4 miles) air-to-surface missiles or up to 3,000 pounds of iron bombs with a combat radius of about 350 miles, the Super Étendard was intended as a platform for carriage and launch of the then-new sea-skimming fire-and-forget Aerospatiale AM39 Exocet (364-pound warhead to 38nm) solid-fuel anti-ship missile, with the jet’s more advanced Agave radar providing targeting data– although mounting it required de-installation of the onboard 30mm cannon to accommodate the black boxes for its fire control system. Moreover, the Super Étendard had a low-level combat radius of 530nm while carrying an Exocet (one missile with a drop tank under the other wing).
In short, it was a game-changer for its era.
Video via ECPAD, the French military’s archives:
The French started fielding the SuE and its AM39 by 1977 and would continue to use the combo for almost 40 years, updating the aircraft four times including swapping out the Agave radar for the more advanced Anemone, and stepping up the AM39 to at least Block 2 standard.
The Exocet-Super Etendard combo, sold in the early 1980s to Argentina which had a small aircraft carrier that could accommodate them, famously saw combat in the Falklands.
Argentine carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo 25, with SuEs and A-4s on deck. The country maintained its WWII-era light carrier until 1993
Two Argentine Navy SuEs carrying a pair of warshot AM39s caused enough damage to sink the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Sheffield on 4 May 1982.
Two more SuEs armed with Exocets struck the 15,000-ton merchant ship Atlantic Conveyor on 25 May, sending her to the bottom.
Two further SuEs, only one carrying the country’s final AM39, made an unsuccessful run on the carrier HMS Invincible on 30 May with the Type 21 frigate HMS Avenger (F 185) often credited with splashing the missile with her 4.5-inch gun– an impressive feat if true.
In a bit of further Gallic damage to NATO naval goodwill, Saddam’s Iraqi Air Force also used exported AM39 Exocets on its Mirage F1s and Super Étendards during the Iran–Iraq War, with two infamously being fired at the OHP-class frigate USS Stark (FFG-31) in 1987.
The Argies hadn’t sent their SuEs to sea for years, at least since the Brazilians– who had allowed the occasional touch and go with the Argentine Navy– retired Navio Aeródromo (NAeL) São Paulo (A12) (ex-Foch) in 2000. This puts the final seagoing SuEs as the ones retired by the French seven years ago.Â
Of note, the Super Etendard was only made between 1974 and 1985, with just 85 airframes produced beyond the prototypes, which means everyone you have ever seen is a rare bird.
Meanwhile, although definitely an aged and arguably no longer top-tier anti-ship missile, MBDA still lists the AM39 Block 2 Mod 2 in their catalog, and various marks of the weapon are still carried in the arsenals of Brazil, Chile, Greece, Morrocco, and Peru. Notably, besides many tactical aircraft able to carry the “flying fish,” the AM39 can also be delivered by medium helicopters. Plus, the French validated that the new Rafael-M strike aircraft can carry the AM39 with a SINKEX in 2012.
But you aren’t ever going to see an airborne SuE with an AM39 again.
Thus, closing the page on that little piece of naval history.Â
Super Etendard launching, 1991, Foch, via the French Navy
While China, the U.S., France, Britain and India are collectively spending billions in treasure and decades of time to develop modern supercarriers to deliver wings of advanced combat aircraft across any coastline in the world, countries with a more modest budget are going a different route.
Rather than a 40,000+ ton vessel with a crew of 1K plus in its smallest format, simpler flattops filled with UAVs are now leaving the drawing board and taking to the water.
Turkey
As previously reported, Turkey, which had built a 25,000-ton/762-foot variant of the Spanish LHA Juan Carlos I with the intention of using a dozen F-35Bs from her deck, kicking the country out of the F-35 program left it with a spare carrier and no aircraft. They have fixed that by planning to embark now Navy-operated AH-1 Cobra gunships and as many as 40 domestically-produced Bayraktar TB3s drones on deck with the promise of at least that many stowed below.
Thailand
The Royal Thai Navy took the Spanish Navy’s PrÃncipe de AsturiasHarrier carrier design of the 1980s (which in itself was based on the old U.S. Navy’s Sea Control Ship project of the 1970s) and built the ski-jump equipped 11,500-ton HTMS Chakri Naruebet some 25 years ago.
Royal Thai Navy AV-8S Matador VSTOL fighters on HTMS Chakri Naruebet (CVH-911) harrier carrier, a capability they had from 1997-2006.Â
Originally fielding a tiny force of surplus ex-Spanish AV-8S Matadors which were withdrawn from service in 2006, she has been largely relegated to use as a royal yacht and sometime LPH, reportedly only getting to sea about 12 days a year.
However, since at least last November, the Royal Thai Navy has been testing a series of drones including the locally-produced MARCUS-B (Maritime Aerial Reconnaissance Craft Unmanned System-B) Vertical Take-Off and Landing UAV from the carrier and started taking delivery of RQ-21A Blackjack drones from the U.S. in May.
Portugal
As detailed by Naval News, the Portuguese Navy (Marinha Portuguesa) unveiled details on a new drone mothership project dubbed “plataforma naval multifuncional” (multifunctional naval platform). Initial brainstorming shows an LPH-style vessel that could hit the 10,000-ton range.
The mothership is shown with two notional fixed-wing UAVs on deck (they look like MQ-1C Grey Eagle but the new MQ-9B STOL may be a better fit) as well as 6 quad-copter UAVs and one NH90 helicopter. The design seems to lack an aviation hangar. Below decks is a modular area to launch and recover AUV, UUV and USV. Portuguese Navy image.
The fixed-wing UAVs are launched via a ski jump. Portuguese Navy image.
Iran
Last week, the Iranians showed off their new “Drone-Carrier Division” in the Indian Ocean including a Kilo-class submarine Tareq (901), auxiliary ship Delvar (471), and landing ship Lavan (514). Iranian state TV claimed one unnamed vessel currently carries at least 50 drones, which isn’t unbelievable.
Most were launched from rails using rocket boosters, including what appeared to be Ababil-2 and Arash types, which can be used to conduct one-way attacks. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) television news coverage of the event showed a floating target and a target on land being hit by UAVs.
The one launched from the submarine appeared to be a new, smaller type, roughly similar in size and configuration to the Warmate loitering munition made by Poland’s WB Group.
A UAV that appeared to be an Ababil-3 – a reusable surveillance type with wheeled undercarriage – was shown taking off from Lavan from a rail. The UAV may have been fitted with a parachute and a flotation device so it can be recovered from the sea, although this was not shown.
On 14 June 1982, the two-brigade-sized British Army and Marine force secured the final defeat of a reinforced division-sized Argentine military element in the Falkland Islands.
Original telex message from Major-General Sir Jeremy Moore to London announcing the recapture of the Falkland Islands, 14 June 1982. The signal, marking the end of the Falklands War (1982), is based in part on a similar surrender signal sent to Winston Churchill by Field Marshal Montgomery from North West Europe in May 1945. NAM. 2013-11-17-1
As the Argentines were quickly repatriated, sans equipment and arms (except for being able to march off with their unit flags while the officers, in an ode to chivalry, kept their sidearms), the invaders left behind a lot of gear that became the property of the Crown.
A rubber-booted SAS man, armed with an M16, inspects captured Argentine weapons in the Falklands. In his hands is an American-made M3 Grease Gun SMG. The pile includes a 90mm M20 “Super bazooka,” assorted FN FAL rifles, and other items, now all “property of the Queen.” Â
Captured Argentinian firearms following their surrender. Note the FALs and FN MAG 58s
A Royal Marine Commando is very happy with his second-hand Argentine M20 3.5-inch Super Bazooka, of U.S. origin
As the FALs were select-fire metric variants rather than UK-standard L1A1 inch-pattern semi-autos, they did not mesh with the British supply train and were mostly discarded– dumped at sea in the deepwater offshore.
The horror…
Some rumors persist that at least a few container loads were clandestinely given away to needy anti-communist guerrillas in Third World stomping grounds, but, of course, those are just rumors until such action is declassified. What is known is that at least some were transferred to the Sierra Leone government as military aid for their security forces.
Plus, the MOD was totally against any trophies being brought back home, as had occurred in the World Wars and Korea.
Warning from Captain Seymour, RFA Resource, regarding Argentinian equipment
But what of the larger stuff?
Some 90 Blowpipes were discovered among the Argentine equipment
Argentia’s occupation force included 12 of these Panhard AML-90 armored cars. Due to the terrain on the islands, they were restricted to the roads around Port Stanley and saw very little fighting. They were all captured more or less intact, and the two best examples were brought to the UK. One is at the Household Cavalry barracks in Bulford, and one is in the Tank Museum collection.
AML 90 Argentine Panhard circa 1966 production captured in the Falklands 1982 on display at Bovington
AML-90s in Port Stanley
One of the two CITER 155s brought back to the UK is currently at the Marine Museum in Norfolk
Paratroopers from 3PARA with a captured Oto Melara 105mm gun of GA3. These guns actually belonged to 7 Para RHA but were sold by UK MOD to Argentina in 1976/7. Irony
The ammunition and Blowpipes, however, were absorbed and fired off by the MOD in training. No word on what happened to the SA-7s, but if you told me they made it to the muj in Afghanistan who were then fighting the Soviets, as often hinted at, I would not scoff.
Libyan-supplied SA-7s recovered in the Falklands
Likewise, the vehicles were kept in the Falklands and used by the follow-on garrison, with some of the Unimogs surviving into the 1990s.
One of the captured Argentine Panhards has long been on display at the Bovington Tank Museum, while most ended up as hard targets for the British Falklands garrison.
RAF Harrier GR3 at RAF Stanley with several Pucara wrecks in the background. Notice the matting on the ground.
22 SAS D squadron commander Cedric Delves, Pebble Island Pucara, after the surrender in June 1982, looking at their work handiwork. Note the M-16s, which the SAS and SBS used almost exclusively
A Boeing Chinook (k Bravo Juliet off Atlantic Contender) hauls the wreck of an Argentinian Pucara away. The Pucara is a ground attack aircraft, but had little impact on the battle. A captured Pucara is in storage at the RAF Museum.
A Pucara wreck. Some were brought to Britain for tests, but most wrecks stayed on the islands for several months, proving popular with incoming garrisons looking for a photo op
As for the 90-foot patrol boat Islas Malvinas, she was renamed HMS Tiger Bay and used until 1986 when she was sold for scrap, which is a pity as she would have made an interesting little museum ship that would have required little in the way of maintenance.
