AP 118 · No. 10 Section IV · Numbers The Almanac · 06
The Almanac · No. 061982

The Almanac

The Falklands

The air war in figures, 1982

Twenty-eight Sea Harriers, eight thousand miles from home, against an air force fighting at the edge of its range. Seventy-four days, a hundred Argentine aircraft gone, and not one Harrier lost in a dogfight.

Two grey Royal Navy Sea Harrier FRS.1s, undercarriage down, approaching a carrier deck over the sea
Sea Harrier FRS.1s of 800 Naval Air Squadron coming aboard a carrier in October 1984, two years after the war.
21

Argentine aircraft shot down by Sea Harriers, for none lost in air combat (the usual count is 20; see the note on chapter 01)

100
Argentine aircraft destroyed or captured
34
British aircraft lost, 24 of them helicopters
7
British ships and craft sunk by air attack
13
bombs that hit British ships and failed to explode
6,600
nautical miles flown by a Vulcan on Black Buck 1

Argentina landed on the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982 and surrendered at Stanley on 14 June. In between, the war at sea and on land was decided largely in the air: whether a few dozen subsonic Harriers flying off two small carriers could keep Argentina’s Skyhawks, Daggers and Mirages off a fleet that had no airborne early warning and very little room to hide.

They could, just. The figures that follow come from the loss-by-loss records compiled after the war and from the official histories. They are lopsided in one direction, the air-to-air score, and sobering in the other: Argentine pilots, flying at the limit of their fuel from the mainland, sank or wrecked seven ships and craft, and would have sunk more had their bombs been fuzed for the low heights they were forced to fly at.

The fighter screen

Two carriers, twenty-eight Sea Harriers, and a missile the Argentines did not have

The Royal Navy sailed with 20 Sea Harrier FRS.1s on Hermes and Invincible; eight more came south on Atlantic Conveyor and flew aboard in mid-May, and the RAF’s Harrier GR.3s followed to take on ground attack. Against them, Argentina could put up more than a hundred jet combat aircraft. The Sea Harrier’s advantages were manoeuvrability, the new all-aspect AIM-9L Sidewinder and the fact that its opponents arrived short of fuel, at low level, intent on ships rather than fighters.

The Harriers flew 1,435 sorties, more than 1,100 of them air-defence patrols. Their losses were all to ground fire or accidents.

28Sea Harrier FRS.1s deployed20 at the start, 8 more by mid-May
1,435Sea Harrier sortiesover 1,100 of them air-defence missions
20–21aircraft shot down in air combat21 in the loss-by-loss count used here; 20 is the figure most often quoted
0Sea Harriers lost in air-to-air combat
6Sea Harriers lost in all2 to ground fire, 4 to accidents and weather
126RAF Harrier GR.3 sorties4 lost, all to ground fire or accident

Source Falklands War order of battle: British air forces; British Aerospace Sea Harrier (Wikipedia, after Ethell & Price and Burden et al.); naval-history.net

Fig. 1

What the Sea Harriers shot down

aircraft destroyed in air combat, by type
  1. IAI DaggerAir Force; seven of them on 21 and 24 May
    9
  2. A-4B and A-4C SkyhawkAir Force
    5
  3. A-4Q SkyhawkNavy; all on 21 May
    3
  4. Mirage IIIEAa second, damaged, was shot down by its own side
    1
  5. Canberra B.62
    1
  6. Pucará
    1
  7. C-130E Hercules1 June; seven crew killed
    1

Sea Harrier and Harrier pilots also destroyed five aircraft and helicopters on the ground, and a Puma crashed while evading a Sea Harrier on 23 May; those are not counted here. Totals of 20 and 23 also appear in print, depending on how the damaged Mirage and the Puma are scored.

Source naval-history.net, Argentine aircraft lost (a5–a69); Falklands War order of battle: Argentine air forces (Wikipedia)

Fig. 2

Sea Harrier FRS.1 against Mirage IIIEA

Sea Harrier FRS.1

Mirage IIIEA

  • 733 mphTop speed1,460 mph
  • 11,900 kgMaximum take-off weight13,700 kg
  • 15 mLength15 m

Verdict On paper the Mirage was twice as fast. In the South Atlantic it was flying 400 nautical miles from base with fuel for a few minutes’ fighting, and after 1 May most were held back to guard the mainland against the Vulcans. The Harrier never had to chase it.

Sea Harrier speed is at sea level (about 1,180 km/h); the Mirage IIIEA’s 1,460 mph (Mach 2.2) is at altitude; published FRS.1 weights vary by a few hundred kilograms. Mirage sorties were decoy and escort missions. The second Mirage “loss” was the aircraft damaged by a Sea Harrier and then shot down by Argentine guns at Stanley.

Source Dassault Mirage III and British Aerospace Sea Harrier specifications (Wikipedia); Metal Wings Sea Harrier FRS.1 data; Argentine sortie figures from the FAA order of battle

A camouflaged Argentine Air Force A-4C Skyhawk with its canopy open and a pilot climbing in, control tower behind
An A-4C Skyhawk of IV Brigada Aérea at Mendoza on 24 May 1982. The Skyhawks flew more attack sorties than any other Argentine type, and lost more aircraft.US Navy (National Museum of Naval Aviation), Public domain · source
Two Argentine Navy Super Étendards, 3-A-202 and 3-A-204, flying over the sea with drop tanks
Argentine Navy Super Étendards 3-A-202 and 3-A-204 in 1982. Five aircraft and five Exocets were all the navy had; the missiles sank Sheffield and Atlantic Conveyor.Radiolandia 2000 (Argentina, 1982), Public domain · source

The cost to Argentina

A hundred aircraft, and how each one was lost

Argentina lost exactly a hundred aircraft by the British count: 45 in the air, the rest on the ground, in accidents, or captured when Stanley surrendered. The Skyhawks, which flew 231 of the 430 attack sorties launched from the mainland, lost 22. Every one of the 24 Pucarás sent to the islands was lost there, eleven of them simply left on the airfields at the end.

Fifty-five men of the Argentine Air Force were killed, 29 of them pilots, with ten more from naval and army aviation.

Fig. 3

Argentine aircraft lost, by type

aircraft

= 1 aircraft

  1. Pucará11 captured at Stanley
    25
  2. Skyhawk (A-4B, A-4C, A-4Q)
    22
  3. Dagger
    11
  4. UH-1H IroquoisArmy; most captured
    9
  5. Puma
    7
  6. Aermacchi MB-339ANavy
    5
  7. T-34C MentorNavy; all at Pebble Island
    4
  8. Agusta A109
    3
  9. Mirage IIIEA
    2
  10. Canberra B.62
    2
  11. Chinook
    2
  12. Bell 212 and Skyvan
    4
  13. C-130E Hercules
    1
  14. Learjet 35A
    1
  15. LynxNavy; flying accident
    1
  16. Alouette IIIwent down with ARA General Belgrano
    1

Source naval-history.net, Argentine aircraft lost, entries a1–a100

Fig. 4

How they were lost

aircraft, by type and cause
  • Sea Harrier, air to air
  • Ships’ missiles and guns
  • Land SAMs and ground fire
  • Destroyed on the ground
  • Captured at the surrender
  • Accident, friendly fire, other
  1. Dagger
    9
    11
  2. A-4B Skyhawk
    342
    10
  3. A-4C Skyhawk
    242
    9
  4. A-4Q Skyhawk
    3
    3
  5. Mirage IIIEA
    2
  6. Canberra
    2
  7. Pucará
    29112
    25
  8. MB-339A
    3
    5
  9. Helicopters
    26133
    25
  10. Transports and others
    6
    8

Ships’ weapons: Sea Dart 7, Sea Wolf 4, Sea Cat 1. Land-based weapons include Rapier, Blowpipe, Stinger and small-arms fire; several Skyhawks over San Carlos were hit by more than one. Two A-4Cs that vanished on 9 May may have been hit by Sea Dart or flown into South Jason Island in cloud; they are counted as accidents. “Destroyed on the ground” covers the SAS raid on Pebble Island, Harrier strikes and naval gunfire. Sources differ by one or two on how many helicopters were wrecked before the surrender rather than captured after it; this chart follows the Wikipedia order of battle (27 captured).

Source naval-history.net, Argentine aircraft lost; Falklands War order of battle: Argentine air forces (Wikipedia)

A wrecked camouflaged twin-engined Pucará on grass by the sea, its nose and engine torn open, a ground-equipment trolley beside it
A Pucará left wrecked on Pebble Island, photographed after the war. The SAS raid of 15 May put six Pucarás, four Mentors and a Skyvan out of action in a single night.
  1. Argentine flag on the fin: the Pucará was built at Córdoba, the country’s own design
  2. Fuselage peppered by blast and splinters
  3. Port engine and its nacelle torn apart; the starboard engine and propeller beyond survived
  4. Ground-equipment trolley in the same desert-and-green camouflage
Ken Griffiths, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Fig. 5

How far they had to fly

statute miles to Stanley, great-circle
  1. Río Grande, Tierra del FuegoSuper Étendards, A-4Qs, Daggers
    441
  2. San JuliánA-4C Skyhawks, Daggers
    470
  3. Río GallegosA-4B Skyhawks, Mirage IIIEAs
    494
  4. Comodoro RivadaviaMirage IIIEAs, Pucarás
    600
  5. TrelewCanberras
    681
  6. Wideawake, Ascension Islandthe RAF’s nearest usable runway
    3,889

Distances are calculated great-circle from airfield coordinates. Daggers and Mirages could not refuel in the air; over the islands a Dagger had, by Argentine accounts, less than ten minutes to find a target. Ascension lies 3,738 nautical miles from the Vulcans’ home at Waddington and 3,380 from Stanley.

Source Aviation Gazetteer calculation; unit bases from the FAA order of battle (Wikipedia) and Freedman, Official History

Black Buck

Seven raids planned, five flown, one bomb on the runway

The Vulcans were weeks from retirement, their refuelling probes blocked off and their bomb bays fitted for nuclear work. To put one over Stanley with twenty-one 1,000 lb bombs meant launching eleven Victor tankers and two Vulcans from Ascension at one-minute intervals, then passing fuel down a relay of tankers that turned back one by one. The Vulcan on Black Buck 1 took on fuel seven times on the way out and once on the way home; the last Victor gave so much away that it nearly failed to get home itself.

One bomb hit the runway. The airfield was never closed to Argentine Hercules, which flew 33 night runs in. The raids’ value is still argued about; what is not in doubt is that they were, for a time, the longest bombing missions ever flown.

6,600nautical miles, round tripabout 16 hours in the air
11Victor tankers to launch one Vulcan raidplus a reserve Vulcan
8refuellings for the attacking Vulcan7 outbound, 1 inbound
211,000 lb bombs per bombing raid
1crater on the runwayfrom Black Buck 1
18tanker sorties to support one Nimrod patrolwhy Vulcan raids paused after 4 May

Source Operation Black Buck (Wikipedia, after White, Vulcan 607, and Burden et al., Falklands: The Air War); Brookes, Vulcan Units of the Cold War

Fig. 6

The seven Black Buck missions
Black Buck 130 Apr–1 MayStanley runwayXM607 (Withers)210Flown; one crater mid-runway. Primary XM598 turned back with a cabin fault
Black Buck 23–4 MayStanley runwayXM607 (Reeve)210Flown; no hit on the runway
Black Buck 3mid-MayStanley runwayXM60700Cancelled before take-off: headwinds
Black Buck 428 MayAir-defence radarXM597 (McDougall)00Recalled after 5 hours: a Victor’s drogue unit failed
Black Buck 531 MayAir-defence radarXM597 (McDougall)02Flown; minor damage, quickly repaired
Black Buck 63 JuneAir-defence radarXM597 (McDougall)02Destroyed a Skyguard fire-control radar; broken probe forced a diversion to Rio de Janeiro
Black Buck 712 JuneAirfield stores and aircraftXM607 (Withers)210Flown; bombs fuzed in error to burst on impact
Black Buck 3 is dated 13 May in one table of the standard history and 16 May in its text. Black Buck 6 carried four Shrikes and fired two.

Source Burden, Draper, Rough, Smith, Falklands: The Air War (1986), via Operation Black Buck (Wikipedia)

Black-and-white satellite view of Stanley airfield: a single runway running left to right, pocked with craters at its western end
Stanley airfield from an American KH-9 Hexagon reconnaissance satellite on 13 June 1982, the day before the surrender. Craters from the Black Buck raids, Sea Harrier attacks and naval gunfire pepper the ground, yet the runway was never closed to Argentine Hercules flights.
  1. The single runway: too short for Argentine fast jets to operate from, long enough for Hercules
  2. A line of craters north-west of the threshold
  3. A cluster of craters south-west of the runway
  4. Terminal, tower and airfield buildings
US National Reconnaissance Office / USGS, Public domain · source
A grey-green camouflaged Avro Vulcan delta bomber parked inside a museum hall
Vulcan XM598 at the RAF Museum, Cosford. She was the primary aircraft for Black Buck 1 until a cabin seal failed, and flew as reserve on the Shrike raids.Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source

Bombs on the fleet

Seven sunk, thirteen damaged, thirteen duds

Argentina’s pilots had trained for this against their own Type 42 destroyers, and it showed. Flying at wave-top height to stay under the radar, they pressed attacks into San Carlos Water so low that their bombs often had no time to arm. Thirteen bombs hit British ships and failed to go off; the naval historian who compiled the list believed that, had they exploded, the task force might not have been able to go on.

Two Exocets fired from Super Étendards did their work: Sheffield on 4 May and Atlantic Conveyor, with almost all the task force’s heavy-lift helicopters, on 25 May.

Fig. 7

British ships hit by Argentine aircraft

ships and craft

= 1 ships and craft

  1. Sunk or burnt outSheffield, Ardent, Antelope, Coventry, Atlantic Conveyor, Sir Galahad and landing craft F4
    7
  2. Damagedfrom near misses and strafing to two bombs lodged inside
    13

Sir Galahad was hit by a bomb that failed to explode on 24 May and destroyed on 8 June; she is counted once, as sunk. Glamorgan’s Exocet hit on 12 June came from a launcher on land and is not counted.

Source naval-history.net, British ships lost and damaged

Fig. 8

Every British ship hit from the air
1 MayHMS AlacrityDaggersSlight damage from near misses0
1 MayHMS ArrowDaggersSlight damage from cannon fire0
1 MayHMS GlamorganDaggersSlight damage from near misses0
4 MayHMS SheffieldSuper Étendard, ExocetBurnt out; sank in tow 10 May0
12 MayHMS GlasgowA-4B SkyhawksBomb passed through the hull; went home1
21 MayHMS AntrimDaggersSeriously damaged1
21 MayHMS BroadswordDaggersSlight damage from cannon fire0
21 MayHMS ArgonautMB-339A, then A-4B SkyhawksSeriously damaged; two bombs lodged aboard2
21 MayHMS BrilliantDaggersSlight damage from cannon fire0
21 MayHMS ArdentDaggers, then A-4Q SkyhawksSank the next evening1
23 MayHMS AntelopeA-4B SkyhawksOne of two lodged bombs exploded while being defused; sank 24 May2
24 MayRFA Sir GalahadA-4C SkyhawksOut of action for days1
24 MayRFA Sir LancelotA-4C SkyhawksNot fully operational for nearly three weeks1
24 MayRFA Sir BedivereA-4C SkyhawksSlight damage from a glancing bomb0
25 MayHMS BroadswordA-4B SkyhawksA bomb bounced up through the stern and out0
25 MayHMS CoventryA-4B SkyhawksSunk by three bombs0
25 MayAtlantic ConveyorSuper Étendards, ExocetBurnt out; sank in tow 28 May0
29 MayBritish WyeC-130 HerculesA bomb bounced off into the sea0
8 JuneHMS PlymouthDaggersDamaged; four bombs failed to explode4
8 JuneRFA Sir GalahadA-4B SkyhawksBurnt out at Fitzroy; later sunk as a war grave0
8 JuneRFA Sir TristramA-4B SkyhawksBadly damaged and abandoned; later repaired0
8 JuneLanding craft F4A-4B SkyhawkSunk in Choiseul Sound0
Attackers as identified in the British loss records. The thirteen unexploded bombs are numbered 1–13 in the same source; Ardent took more than one hit before she sank.

Source naval-history.net, Falklands War 1982, British ships sunk and damaged

A long dark container ship on the horizon, seen past the out-of-focus fittings of a warship’s bridge wing
Atlantic Conveyor approaching the Falklands, about 19 May 1982, photographed from an escort. Six days later two Exocets set her on fire.
  1. A helicopter lashed down on the forward deck
  2. Walls of containers stacked along the deck to shelter the aircraft from the sea
  3. Bridge and accommodation, aft
DM Gerard, CC BY-SA 2.5 · source
Fig. 9

What Atlantic Conveyor carried south

aircraft
  • Flown off or away from the ship
  • Destroyed in the fire
  1. Sea Harrier FRS.1
    8
    8
  2. Harrier GR.3
    6
    6
  3. Chinook HC.1
    23
    5
  4. Wessex HU.5
    16
    7
  5. Lynx HAS.2
    1
    1

The Harriers were landed on her deck at Ascension and flown off to the carriers in mid-May. One Chinook was left at Ascension; another, ZA718 “Bravo November”, was airborne when the Exocets struck and became the only RAF Chinook in the islands. Twelve men died in the ship.

Source SS Atlantic Conveyor (Wikipedia); naval-history.net, British aircraft lost (b17–b26)

The British losses

Thirty-four aircraft, most of them helicopters, most not to enemy fighters

Only one British aircraft was shot down by an Argentine aircraft: a Royal Marines Scout, caught by two Pucarás near Goose Green on 28 May. Far more were lost to the South Atlantic itself, to the weather, the dark and the sea, and to the ships they flew from. Ten went down with Atlantic Conveyor alone.

The worst single loss was a Sea King cross-decking troops on the night of 19 May: twenty-one men died, eighteen of them from the SAS.

Fig. 10

British aircraft lost, by type

aircraft

= 1 aircraft

  1. Wessexsix in Atlantic Conveyor
    9
  2. Sea Harrier
    6
  3. Sea King
    5
  4. Harrier GR.3
    4
  5. Chinook
    3
  6. Lynx
    3
  7. Gazelleone shot down by a British Sea Dart
    3
  8. Scout
    1

Source naval-history.net, British aircraft lost, entries b1–b34

Fig. 11

British aircraft losses, by cause

aircraft
  1. Lost with ships hit by bombs and missilesAtlantic Conveyor 10, Ardent 1, Coventry 1; plus Glamorgan’s Wessex, to a land-based Exocet
    13
  2. Accidents and weatherincluding two Sea Harriers that vanished in fog on 6 May
    11
  3. Anti-aircraft guns, missiles and small arms2 Sea Harriers, 3 GR.3s, 2 Gazelles
    7
  4. Shot down by Argentine aircraftScout, by Pucarás, 28 May
    1
  5. Friendly fireGazelle, by HMS Cardiff’s Sea Dart, 6 June
    1
  6. Destroyed by its own crewSea King HC.4 after a special-forces flight into Chile
    1

Source naval-history.net, British aircraft lost

Fig. 12

The running toll

aircraft lost, cumulative, by day of the war (2 April = day 0)
  • Argentine aircraft destroyed in the fighting
  • British aircraft lost
The running toll
YearArgentine aircraft destroyed in the fightingBritish aircraft lost
000
110
2012
2113
2983
30103
31123
32124
34126
37156
40197
43307
45308
46309
473010
494414
514915
525315
535626
555727
566028
576129
586430
606531
656532
666632
676933
716934
727034
737034

Excludes the 29 Argentine aircraft captured at the surrender (counted in chapter 02 as 27 captured and two wrecked; sources differ) and a Pucará lost on an unknown date.

Source naval-history.net, Argentine and British aircraft lost

Fig. 13

The dead

people killed

= 20 people killed

  1. Argentine servicemen321 in ARA General Belgrano; 65 from the three air arms
    649
  2. British servicemen
    255
  3. Falkland Islanderskilled by a British shell in Stanley on the night of 12 June
    3

Source Falklands War (Wikipedia); Argentine Air Force roll of the fallen

The Argentine Air Force fought extremely well and we felt a great admiration for what they did.

Admiral Sandy Woodward, commander of the British carrier group, interviewed by Clarín, 2007 (translated)
Fig. 14

Seventy-four days

  1. Argentine forces land at Stanley; the next day a Puma is shot down at Grytviken, the war’s first aircraft loss

  2. The carriers Hermes and Invincible sail from Portsmouth with 20 Sea Harriers between them

    20

  3. Two Wessex crash in a blizzard on the Fortuna Glacier, South Georgia; every man is rescued

  4. Black Buck 1 bombs Stanley; Sea Harriers shoot down a Mirage, a Dagger and a Canberra in the first air battles

    3

  5. Exocet hits Sheffield; a Sea Harrier is shot down over Goose Green and Lt Nick Taylor killed

  6. SAS raid on Pebble Island puts eleven aircraft out of action

    11

  7. Landings at San Carlos; Ardent lost; the Sea Harriers’ busiest day

    10

  8. Coventry sunk; Atlantic Conveyor hit, with ten helicopters

    10

  9. Goose Green; a Scout shot down by Pucarás, the only British aircraft lost to an Argentine one

  10. A Sea Harrier shoots down a C-130 north of Pebble Island; another Sea Harrier falls to a Roland missile

  11. Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram bombed at Fitzroy; three Skyhawks shot down that afternoon

    3

  12. Argentine forces at Stanley surrender

Source naval-history.net; Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign (2005)

Side by side

The British and Argentine types, in the Gazetteer’s own models

Fig. 15

The air war at one scale

drawn to one scale
  1. Nimrod MR.2, side view Nimrod MR.2 39.3 m
  2. Victor K.2, side view Victor K.2 35.1 m
  3. Vulcan B.2, side view Vulcan B.2 30.5 m
  4. Sea King, side view Sea King 22.2 m
  5. Canberra (Argentina flew 8, the B.62), side view Canberra (Argentina flew 8, the B.62) 20.0 m
  6. Lynx, side view Lynx 15.2 m
  7. Harrier GR.3, side view Harrier GR.3 14.3 m
  8. Sea Harrier, side view Sea Harrier 14.2 m · model is the later FA2; the war was fought by the FRS.1
  9. Scout and Wasp, side view Scout and Wasp 12.3 m
  10. Gazelle, side view Gazelle 12.0 m
  11. Chinook HC.1 “Bravo November”, side view Chinook HC.1 “Bravo November” 15.5 m
  12. Hercules C.1, side view Hercules C.1 34.4 m
  13. VC10 C.1, side view VC10 C.1 48.4 m
  14. Puma (Argentine Army), side view Puma (Argentine Army) 18.2 m
  15. UH-1H (Argentine Army), side view UH-1H (Argentine Army) 17.4 m

Helicopter spans are main-rotor diameters.

Fig. 16

Wideawake, Ascension Island, May 1982

live 3D, true scale
  • Vulcan B.2 30.5 m long, 33.8 m span
  • Victor K.2 35.1 m long, 36.6 m span
  • Nimrod MR.2 39.3 m long, 35.0 m span
  • Phantom FGR.2, 29 Squadron, guarding the island 17.6 m long, 11.7 m span
  • Sea King HAR.3, 202 Squadron 22.2 m long, 18.9 m rotor
  • Harrier GR.3, staging south 14.3 m long, 7.7 m span
  • Chinook HC.1 “Bravo November” 15.5 m long, 18.3 m rotor
  • Hercules C.1 34.4 m long, 40.4 m span
  • VC10 C.1 48.4 m long, 44.6 m span

Fourteen Victor tankers were based at Wideawake by the end of April 1982, out of 23 in RAF service.

Fig. 17

Where to see them

in British museums

Several survivors are genuine Falklands veterans: Sea Harrier XZ499 at Yeovilton, Harrier GR.3 XZ133 at Duxford, Vulcans XM598 at Cosford and XM607 at Waddington, and captured Pucarás brought back as trophies.

Sources

  1. naval-history.net, Falklands War 1982, Part 54: Argentine aircraft lost
  2. naval-history.net, Falklands War 1982, Part 53: British aircraft lost
  3. naval-history.net, Falklands War 1982, Part 52: British ships lost and damaged
  4. Falklands War order of battle: Argentine air forces (Wikipedia)
  5. Falklands War order of battle: British air forces (Wikipedia)
  6. Operation Black Buck (Wikipedia)
  7. SS Atlantic Conveyor (Wikipedia)
  8. British Aerospace Sea Harrier (Wikipedia)
  9. Falklands War (Wikipedia): casualties
  10. Lawrence Freedman, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, 2 vols (Routledge, 2005)
  11. Rodney Burden, Michael Draper, Douglas Rough, Colin Smith, David Wilton, Falklands: The Air War (Arms & Armour, 1986)
  12. Jeffrey Ethell and Alfred Price, Air War South Atlantic (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1983)
  13. Rowland White, Vulcan 607 (Bantam, 2006)
  14. John Pike, The Falkland Islands Conflict, 1982: Air Defense of the Fleet (GlobalSecurity.org)
  15. Metal Wings: Sea Harrier FRS.1 data
  16. Dassault Mirage III (Wikipedia): specifications
  17. Clarín, interview with Admiral Sandy Woodward, 3 April 2007

Photographs

  • Sea Harrier FRS.1s of 800 Naval Air Squadron coming aboard a carrier in October — US Navy, Public domain · source
  • An A-4C Skyhawk of IV Brigada Aérea at Mendoza on 24 May 1982. The Skyhawks flew — US Navy (National Museum of Naval Aviation), Public domain · source
  • Argentine Navy Super Étendards 3-A-202 and 3-A-204 in 1982. Five aircraft and fi — Radiolandia 2000 (Argentina, 1982), Public domain · source
  • A Pucará left wrecked on Pebble Island, photographed after the war. The SAS raid — Ken Griffiths, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
  • Stanley airfield from an American KH-9 Hexagon reconnaissance satellite on 13 Ju — US National Reconnaissance Office / USGS, Public domain · source
  • Vulcan XM598 at the RAF Museum, Cosford. She was the primary aircraft for Black — Alan Wilson, CC BY-SA 2.0 · source
  • Atlantic Conveyor approaching the Falklands, about 19 May 1982, photographed fro — DM Gerard, CC BY-SA 2.5 · source

Figures are drawn from the sources above; where they disagree the most widely cited figure is used and the range is given in the notes. Side profiles and 3D models are the gazetteer’s own procedural models, drawn to scale from published dimensions. Spotted an error? Tell us.