Learn about the different airplanes available to both air forces in the Falklands.

Previous posts of this saga:

On April 2, 1982, a new chapter in the history of both Argentina and England was inaugurated. The English in their various documentaries say that they were at a disadvantage because of the immense costs of the logistics of carrying out a war across half the planet, and they are right in that regard. But what they will never admit is that their war equipment, although limited in quantity, was vastly superior to the Argentine one.

In the following parts of this saga we will compare the equipment of both countries, technical characteristics and we will make a brief summary of their role in the war. Maybe it's something that bores some people more oriented to feeling the action behind the story, the same people who get up from their seats during historical documentaries. To them I say: wait for your moment, you will have it. This section is for nerd like me who just happen to like weapons of war a lot, people who dine details and want to know each performance of each weapon.

Lets start with the aviation:

England - Harrier GR. 1, GR. 3 and Sea Harrier

Although the vertical takeoff technology of Harrier aircraft was developed in the 1960s, these aircraft had extensive modifications and updates of all their on-board technologies in subsequent years. It was typically used as a ground attack aircraft, although its good maneuverability allowed it to also face other aircraft in short-range fights. During the Falklands War in 1982, there was a clear distinction between the Sea Harrier and the Harrier, the former having been designed specifically for naval combat, while the Army Harrier had to undergo extensive modifications in order to be brought to the Falklands - among other things, they added corrosion insulators and a new inertial guidance system to allow them to land on the aircraft carriers. These aircraft completed more than 2000 missions during the war. The losses of the 10 British harriers were not in air combat but(with the exception of a pair that suffered engine failures during takeoff and ended up in the sea) the great majority were shot down by anti-aircraft fire and surface-to-air missiles (argentine SAMs).

Crew: 1 / Length: 14.27m (46.81 feet)
Height: 3.63 m (11.90 ft) 
Wingspan: 7.70 m (25.26 ft)
Wing surface: 18.68 m²
Empty Weight: 6,140 kg (13,536 lbs)
Maximum weight at takeoff: 11,430 kg 
  (25,198 lbs)
Engine: 1 × Rolls-Royce Pegasus 103
    turbofan with 4 directional nozzles,
   and 4 additional vertical nozzles to
   project air from the engine through
   them, mounted in the nose, the
   wingtips, and under the tail.
Maximum speed: 635 kts - 1,176 km/h
   (731 mph) at sea level.
Combat range: 230 mi (200 nmi) with
 a 2,000 kg (4,400 lbs) payload.
Maximum flight time during combat missions:
     1h 30 min (185 km - 115 mi from base).
Service Ceiling: 15,600 m (51,200 ft)
Time to climb
        to 12.200 m (40,000 ft) : 2 min 23 s

Armament:
* 2x  30mm ADEN guns
   (cannon pods under the fuselage)
* Puntos de montaje:
   4x under the wings and 1x under the
   fuselage, with a payload capacity of
  2,260kg (5,000 lbs) to carry combinations
    of:
  - Rockets: 4× Matra rocket pods with 
      18× SNEB 68 mm rockets each.
  - Missiles: 2× AIM-9 Sidewinders
     Air-to-air IR(heat) guided missiles.
  - Bombs: A variety of unguided iron bombs, 
   BL755 cluster bombs or laser-guided bombs
Others:
  - 1× Reconnaissance pod
  - 2× drop tanks for extended range or
  loitering time.

*. Quantity of planes in all groups,
   counting Harriers and Sea Harriers: 31
 (Only 28 took part in the war)

*. Planes lost: 10

These were the first combats between Argentine supersonic aircraft (Mirage and Dagger) and British Harriers and Sea Harriers, and the English aircraft showed a strong superiority in terms of maneuverability and ability to surprise with its advanced radars and heat-guided (infrared) missiles at its enemies . Equipped with AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles, provided by the Americans, the Harrier would fire more than 26 missiles towards the end of the war, achieving 18 victories and no losses in aerial combat.

The harriers took advantage of their radaristic superiority to approach without being noticed and generally attacked the argentinians from behind or from diagonals inside blind spots and at a very short range, and the less maneuverable Argentine planes by the time they realized they had a missile in their tail(they had no missile alarm installed), it was too late . For that reason they were baptized as "The black death" by the Argentine pilots.

Argentina - Dassault Mirage III Mara and Dassault Mirage 5

The Dassault Mirage III is a second-generation multipurpose fighter developed in the 1960s. Argentina had received 43 units of Mirage III that were never modernized. In several of these units, their Cyrano radars were inoperative due to lack of maintenance and replacement. It is inferior in maneuverability with respect to the Harrier and its only advantage lies in its high maximum speed and wide operating range, things that are nullified in case of surprise attack. The air-to-air missiles they relied on were the Matra R530, Matra R550 Magic and the Shafrir and had never been tested in combat before. All these missiles have less than half the range and much less maneuverability than the AIM-9L Sidewinder the the English relied on, besides being rear aspect only, that is, the attacking plane needed to be directly behind its target to shoot them and for the missile to be able to follow its trajectory to the objective successfully. The had such an inferior performance when compared to the sidewinder that this was widely noticed in other conflicts as well.

Crew: 1 / Length: 15 m (49.21 ft)
Height: 4.5 m (14.76 ft)
Wingspan: 8.2 m (26.90 ft)
Wing surface area: 34.9 m²
Empty weight: 7,050 kg (15,542 lbs)
Maximum takeoff weight: 13,700 kg
   (30,203 lbs)
Engine: 1 × Snecma Atar 09C Turbo
  Reactor.
  
Maximum speed: 2,350 km/h (1,460 mph)
   at 12,000 m (40,000 ft) high.
Combat range: 1,200 km (745 mi)
Service Ceiling: 17,000 m (55,000 ft)
Climb rate: 237 m/s

Armament:
* 2x rotary DEFA 552 30mm
  cannons, with 125 ammo each(500 total)
* Mounting pylons:
   5x with a capacity of 4,000kg(8,800 lbs)
   to carry a combination of:
 - Rockets: 2x Matra JL-100 pods with
   19 SNEB rockets of 68mm each.
 - Matra R530, Matra R550 Magic and Python
  (Shafrir-1 variant) Air to air missiles.
* Other:
 - 3x extra fuel drop pods.

*. Quantity of planes: 25
*. Lost planes: 2

Argentina - IAI Nesher / Dagger / Finger

The first Nesher prototype flew in September 1969. The ones that Argentina acquired, were bought second-hand from Israel, and already had significant flight hours when they arrived. After extensive maintenance, and being reconditioned for active duty again, they were put to the test in combat around the Falklands. The 11 shot down Daggers were intercepted while carrying full payload of of bombs, since they were either doing ground attack missions or bombing British ships. These launched approximately 80 bombs and fired almost 3,000 cartridges of 30mm, reaching 12 British ships with them. Despite the modernization, the Dagger did not have a radar alert system, a missile warning system, or a flare launcher, so essentially they did not have any defense system.

Crew: 1 / 2(it has both single seat and
  two seat versions)
Length: 15.6 m (51.18 ft)
Height: 4.3 m (14.10 ft)
Wingspan: 8.2 m (26.90 ft)
Wing surface area: 34.8 m²
Empty weight: 6,570 kg (14,484 lbs)
Maximum takeoff weight: 13,500 kg (29,762 lbs)
Engine: 1 × Snecma Atar 9C-5  Turbo Reactor
  
Maximum speed: 2,350 km/h (1,460 mph)
  at 12.000 m (39,370 ft) height.

Combat range: 1,200 km (745 miles)
Service Ceiling: 17,680 m (55,800 ft)
Rate of climb: 83 m/s

Armament:
* 2 x DEFA 552 30mm cannons
  with 125 ammo each.
* Mounting Pylons:
   7x(6 under the wings and one
   under the fuselage) with a capacity
   to carry 4,200 kg (9,250 lbs) of ordnance,
   including a combination of:
 - Bombs: 2x general purpose 227kg (500 lbs)
   Mk 82 or 460 kg (1,000 lbs) Mk 83 bombs.
 - Rockets: 2x LAU-61/A containers with
   19 FFAR 70 mm rockets each.
 - Air to air Missiles: Matra R530, 
  Matra R550 Magic or Python(Shafrir-1
   variant)
* Other:
 - 3x Pods extra fuel drop pods.

*. Quantity of planes: 26
*. Lost planes: 11

Argentina - Douglas A-4 Skyhawk

This aircraft of American origin is very maneuverable for its size but its weakness lies in the little relative thrust that its engines provide. Not having any aircraft carriers to take off from, the A4 could only reach the islands after refuelling in flight, and only with a smaller load of bombs. All units of this aircraft belonged to the FAA(Argentine airforce) and did not have navigation or radar equipment, and the FAA did not know how to adjust the fuse of the bombs against ships (60% of these bombs did not explode). The ARA(Argentine Navy) did know that, but it did not pass that information to the FAA, and the FAA did not ask for its help either. By the circumstances that we explained in the previous post of the saga, this type of communication problems were common between the Air Force and the Navy. The great majority of these planes also did not have flares, being an easy target for the Harriers.

Crew: 1 / 2(it has both single seat
 and twin seat versions)
Length: 12.2 m (40 ft)
Height: 4.6 m (15 ft)
Wingspan: 8.4 m (27.55 ft)
Wing area: 24.2 m²
Empty weight: 4,750 kg (10,500 lbs)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 
           11,136 kg (24,550 lbs)
Engine: 1 × Pratt & Whitney J52-P8A
  Turbo Reactor
Maximum speed: 1,077 km/h (669.21 mph)
  at sea level.
Combat range: 1,158 km (719,54 mi)
Service Ceiling: 12,878 m (42,000 ft)
Rate of Climb: 43 m/s

Armament:
* 2 x Colt Mk 12 - 20mm cannon with 100
  ammo each.
* Puntos de montaje:
   5x(4 under the wings and 1 under the
   fuselage) with capacity to carry 4,490 kg
   (9,899 lbs) of ordnance, a combination
   of:
 - Bombs: General purpose bombs of the
   whole Mk 80 series.
 - Rockets: LAU-5003 pods with 19×
   CRV7 70 mm rockets.
 - Air to Air Missiles: Matra R530, 
  Matra R550 Magic and Python(Shafrir-1
   variant)
* Other:
 - 3x Pods extra fuel drop tanks.

*. Quantity of planes: 68
*. Lost aircraft: 19

All these conform the main aircraft of each nation, and in the next episodes we will continue to analyze the rest of the aircraft and support forces.

Regarding the saga delays, I apologize, since it really takes me much more time for research and corroboration than I had thought, and I will not lower the quality of the saga just to meet the deadlines, so in the I will not give delivery deadlines, although they have my guarantee that I will continue to deliver them regularly. Also, the argentinian summer holidays are not helping with the issue.

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A story of two isles - The Falklands - part 14 - Summary of the combat material of the air forces involved

Previous posts of this saga:

England - Harrier GR. 1, GR. 3 and Sea Harrier

Argentina - Dassault Mirage III Mara and Dassault Mirage 5

Argentina - IAI Nesher / Dagger / Finger

Argentina - Douglas A-4 Skyhawk