The government has confirmed it regularly reviews the military posture in the Falkland Islands and is satisfied the current level of forces is appropriate to defend them, following a parliamentary question asking whether a recent security review had been undertaken.
Conservative MP Geoffrey Cox asked whether the Secretary of State had undertaken a recent review of the security and defence of the Falkland Islands and what steps were planned to improve preparedness.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary Al Carns said the UK’s position on the islands was long-standing, that “sovereignty rests with the UK, and the Islanders’ right of self-determination is paramount.”
Carns confirmed that as set out in the Strategic Defence Review, a core role for defence was the protection of the UK’s overseas territories, which included “maintaining a defensive military posture in the Falkland Islands consisting of air, land and maritime forces.” He said the posture was reviewed regularly “to ensure it reflects all relevant developments” and that he was “confident that our current military presence is at the appropriate level to ensure the defence of the Islands.”
The question comes against a backdrop of renewed Argentine calls for sovereignty negotiations, which the UK government has repeatedly rejected, and a broader period of heightened attention to the islands following a leaked Pentagon memo last month that suggested the United States could reassess its diplomatic support for British sovereignty as part of wider pressure on NATO allies.
Well at least 3662 British Citizens are adequately defended then. 😎
As I understand it the Argentinian military is in an even worse state than ours, so it shouldn’t take a huge amount of hardware to properly defend it.
It thought the defences were adequate iin early 1982 as well.
Strangely, despite 30 odd years of defence cuts, it still thinks that the UK is adequately defended,, …. ” biggest defence uplift……. meeting all NATO commitments…… increasing lethality…….” etc.
Meanwhile……
If you go on Google Earth and gaze down on RAF Mount Pleasant, you will be surprised just how big it is. Sadly, at least ten Typhoon T1s could have been stationed there alongside T2s to warn anyone to keep away.
Maurice, the base, MPA or Mount Pleasant Complex is more than RAF Mount Pleasant of course. There is a RN and Army presence too. Ten Typhoons would be overkill.
4 is enough. And they have kept away
To be fair in 1982 nobody thought the defences were adequate, because the assumption was after a bit of negotiation and bribery of the islanders they would agree to essentially a gradual hand over and after a time the UK could step back.
Well that fills me with confidence, nothing this Government says is ever true, lets hope the defences are never tested that would be better for every one, rather than relying on bluff and defection
Instead of the ‘what ifs’ actually look at the state of the Argie military AT the moment and can anyone see an invasion by sea or air occurring? The defence of the islands in 82 were a troop of RM and Endurance an ice patrol ship,compare that with now and with an Argentina that does not possess the capability as it did then!
As for US support in sovereignty they can FO it’s bugger all to do with them!just more tiresome crap from Hegseth and co!
Meanwhile the US does more of Pootins bidding by withdrawing 5000 more troops from Germany🙄
I agree, there are actually very few militaries in the world with the ability to over come the sky Sabre and four typhoons operating in the Falklands and an amphibious landing today in the face of UK forces armed with Javelin and NLAW would be suicidal.
Even a small number of wildcats moved to the island which can be done in 48 hours via C17 would be deadly to any task force, our wildcats practice this exact mission around Norway all the time and sea venom can mission kill any naval assets Argentina has.
As we seen in Ukraine in 2022 where British intelligence knew that Russia was going to invade before most parts of the Russian military knew it would be very difficult for Argentina to do anything without us knowing and even just a weeks notice might see an Astute class submarine patrolling in the waters of the South Atlantic able to take out an entire navy on her own.
There are probably no more than a handful of militaries in the world able to overcome the Falklands defences and none in South America and only one in the western hemisphere.
In terms of retaking the islands the UK is in a far better position than it was in 1982 with two large deck carriers able to operate large numbers of fits generation aircraft and helicopters and three large amphibious ships.
The UK also has a deep strike capability with around 70 TLAM’s that could devastate any Argentine airbase at will.
And once ashore the army and marines have access to deployable weapon systems like M270 and Apache for fire support and sky Sabre for GBAD and the world’s second largest fleet of chinooks for logistics.
Hi Jim and folks hope all is well.
Agree Jim, there are few nations that have the reach and capabilities to take the Falklands again. I’m no expert as you and many on this site, but from my knowledge it would be a hard slog for Argentina to have a go again. Even if we looked as if the UKs forces were in trouble, I’m confident we could despatch reinforcements.
One article I was just reading in Defence Blog was about Argentina acquiring air tankers to support the F16’s. I’ve copied a clip from the article below:
Argentina’s Air Force chief has confirmed the service is actively pursuing two Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker aerial refueling aircraft, a capability acquisition that would directly extend the combat reach of the F-16AM/BM Fighting Falcons Argentina is already in the process of receiving.
Cheers
George
Hi George, I seen that one as well. Argentina will be hard pressed to get two KC135 from the US and the aircraft is a training and maintenance nightmare for a small force of two using the probe system for refuelling.
Definitely something for the UK to keep an eye on but also an easy day one target for TLAM in a shooting war.
The last I had read, only three of the four Typhoons stationed on the islands are serviceable.
Stop talking sense Jim. It won’t go down well on this site 😄
We’d see them coming, even more than in 82 I’d think.
Don’t forget we now have a front line Baaaatalian of one way effector drone sheep just munching away, ready to pounce.
Descendants of the Welsh Guards ?
I’ll get my wellies.
Been in a big cemetery all afternoon, I got the hint mate.
Think I remember something similar being said in 1982.
So surveillance and intelligence gathering have not moved on in 40 odd years? Never heard the the saying ‘once bitten twice shy’?
Plus, we have cyber warfare
Captain of HMS Endurance warned.
The DA in Argentina warned.
GCHQ warned.
The FCO, I recall, played the reports down.
There is now something in the Falkland Islands called the Joint Service Signal Unit ( FI )
There are several, including the JSSU at Digby, the JSSU at Ayios Nikolios in the ESBA in Cyprus, and, big clue, a JSSU Cheltenham.
If one looks them up, the website job description talks total crap, their real role includes SIGINT, for GCHQ, and any cursory glance at the lineage of the previous RAF and Army units they formed from also makes this obvious.
I think I’ve pinpointed where they are on the FI as well but I’ll leave it to others to work it out if they can be bothered.
Ascension Island is also covered in antenna.
We are not blind, not by a long way.
Come on in Argdntina…..come on in, we are waiting for you. 👋
We did seen them coming in 82, RM commandos were on the beach opposing them. However in 1982 there was no large airport at Stanley and no British transport aircraft that could fly there from Ascension. Reinforcing the islands required ships to sail.
This may be true but let’s face it the government aren’t really going to say anything else.
Do they have any working subs? They could do an Operation Spider Web on our airfield at Mount Pleasant. Overwhelm with drones lifted from a surfaced sub. We’d never see it coming. We might not be able to defend against that many. That would be my first salvo if I was them: Target the Airfield to stop the rapid reinforcement.
Ahh but don’t forget we probably have a Mighty “River” down there.
You cannot knock out an airfield with small drones.. you need very very big penetrating bombs and lots of them.. also all you need to do is fill in the holes.. remember we have the A400m and it can land on grass and grave.. so they are not preventing re enforcement and they have sod all chance of overcoming the defences before the Uk can dump an air Mobile battalion on the island.
Yes and no one would notice containers being shipped to the Falkland Islands from Argentina for deliver next to Mount Pleasant air field and even if they did that they would still have to take out the sky Sabre battery.
Then they would still have to fend off a royal navy task force and a couple of brigades of pissed of commandos, rangers, Gurkhas and paras.
What was I thinking. Scissors beats Paper, River beats Spider Web. We are totally safe now. Phew!
I would say this is one time you can with no bullshite agree with what the government has said. Argentinian has no way of overcoming the defences on the island.
Mile for mile it’s probably one of the most defended bits of the British state and without doubt one of the hardest to actually attack.
But not only are the defences very good but it also now has a direct unbroken air bridge to the UK and the UK has the strategic airlift to support it and dump forces there to respond to any threat.
Finally the UKs ability to inflict punishment on any Nation that tried it is far greater than in the 1982. Although the RN is a lot smaller it’s got far greater ability to undertake conventional strategic attacks on another nation than it had in the 1982… even if we did not have the mass to retake the Falklands if lost, Argentina would get very bored very quickly of the RN and RAF blowing up its ports and airfields and random other infrastructure…I’m sure they would become more bored of receiving paveways than the RAF would of dropping them.. infact it may take a while but a paveway reenforced request for a negotiated return of the islands would in the end get through… sometimes you just have to trust diplomatic routes.
For me that present is not the issue it’s the future..from a geostrategic point of view the Falklands will one day become some of the hottest real estate on the planet.. this is what US playing is really about, it’s not a now thing it’s a reminder to the UK that it will be a future thing and we had better play nice with the big boy. It’s not really about the Falklands its about that entirely virgin continent and the British Antarctic territory.. to be very clear Britain has the oldest claim on the only reality decent and accessible part of the Antarctic.. and the Falklands are the doorway and allows control of that. There are a lot of countries that dispute our ownership of the British Antarctic territories and it’s only held in abeyance by the Antarctic treaty, at some point the Antarctic treaty will fail and there will be blood on the snow, but if you control the Falklands and its infrastructure you essentially control access to the British Antarctic territory. This is why the Falklands is so pivotal in many minds.. it’s not about a tiny island and 3000 people, it’s about the future of a yet to be exploited continent.
Let’s hope Starmer doesn’t do a deal with Mauritius then.
He’s got to spaff £30 Billion somewhere 🤔😎
In theory Argentina could take the islands, since taking out the 4 typhoons and river2 won’t be that difficult with sufficient planning. Once they are out then a landing operation would be difficult to stop by the defenders, considering its is only a handful of the 1000 odd troops there that are infantry and we lack any form of land based air shipping missiles.
However even in it’s much depleted form, the navy is miles stronger than it was in 82. T45 have significantly better radar and missiles, and importantly can cover far larger area than it’s 82 equivalents. We have 1-2 carriers and importantly crowsnest which was a significant gap in 82 and blamed for most of the naval losses. Also 40 odd f35 which are far more power than the 20 odd harriers of the day.
Combined that with Apache providing close air support and a sub with thomahawks.
Argentine Navy is in a mess and no state to defend off a task force and whilst their new f16s are decent, they would be no match for the f35b and t45, and are armed with older less capable missiles.
Only issue is getting the troops there and landing them, but I assume it would be a airlift from a load of Chinooks backed up by wildcat and Apache.
I’m not a betting man…….. But 😂
I am not either but it doesn’t require much of a bet. If you look at what went wrong in 82 it was the lack of over the horizon radar coverage, allowing Argentina aircraft to get far too close before being detected. Crowsnest might not be cutting edge but it provides that, and the t45 is cutting edge. That combined with missile systems of the day that had significant issues, aster/camm are both battle tested, plus now also have ciws. Plus if we can get both carriers to sea they can hold significantly more aircraft than the invisible class of the era, enabling more jets to be used in picket defence. More ships were required in 82 because of the issues of the radar / missile systems of the day.
We all know there Is no real threat Steve.
Do we?
All it requires is another economic crash in Argentina and someone like trump/farage to be in power at the time and an invasion could happen.
Popularism is a major problem right now, and results in extreme leaders that do silly things to get or stay in power.
It can’t crash much further and they just don’t have the capability.
There is a fair bit further they can fall, especially if the Iran war and the corresponding hit on the world economy continues. The world is going to go through extreme pain if it continues for too long. Poorer countries will get out bid by richer countries for oil/gas/fertiliser/etc, potentially triggering serious political unrest around the world.
Let’s just hope trump ego allows him to take an exit ramp before then.
Unless Trump backs his Argentine chum, all will be well.
I expect Argentina to begin testing the RAF response in the coming weeks/months.
With 23 A4s( how many mission capable)and 6 F16s(not yet anywhere near operational) they will be hard pressed to test anyone!/
Were they saying this about Cyprus before the Iran ‘special military operation’ too?
Military Intelligence wise, spotting a few lone Drones vs an Argentinian invasion building up or deploying are very different.
But if you meant politically, with HMG downplaying any threat, then yes, you’re right.