Mariano Sciaroni

It was the South Atlantic in 1982, and the world’s last carrier war was about to begin. Yet war is not only about bombs and missiles – it is about the minds that wield them. This is the story of the Falklands War told not through headlines of ships sunk and pilots lost, but through the doctrines, improvisations, and split-second decisions that defined modern naval combat. Argentina’s Navy entered the conflict with aging Skyhawks, a handful of new Super Étendards, and a weapon that unsettled even the Royal Navy: the Exocet missile. But it had trained for a different enemy – Chile. Britain's sailors, meanwhile, had drilled for battling Soviet submarines in the icy North Atlantic, and were not best placed to tackle Argentine aviators charging low and fast over the waves of the South Atlantic. Neither side was ready. Both would learn under fire. This book places the reader inside that experience: in the cockpit of a Skyhawk, on the deck of the carrier ARA _25 de Mayo_, and in war rooms where doctrine was written in haste. It traces how pilots learned to evade radar, how engineers adapted bombs for a different kind of war, and how commanders turned to probability and cold statistics to predict survival. This is no abstract theory. It is the reality of flying into missile envelopes with unreliable equipment, trusting fuel tanks and bomb fuzes that might fail. It is a deadly contest of ambush and countermeasure, where a radar signal or a moment’s hesitation meant life or death. _Wings Against Warships in the South Atlantic_ blends precision with intensity. It is a story of courage and adaptation, where outdated aircraft and untested missiles confronted one of the world’s most powerful navies. The Falklands War was brief. Its lessons endure – revealing how naval aviation was reshaped under fire, at sea, and at the edge of survival.

When the Task Force of the Royal Navy started its southbound voyage, as the second major act during the Falklands/Malvinas War of 1982, its commanders assessed the Argentine submarines as the biggest threat. Even if limited in total size and scope, this threat was so conditioning that the conclusion was that it had to be neutralised at the earliest possible moment in time, otherwise no victory would have been possible. The British believed that the Argentines would wait for them in the waters of the war zone with two modern and dangerous German-made Type-209 submarines, and a modified US-made submarine from the times of the Second World War. To their good luck, this threat was quickly reduced to two, because during the first naval combat of the conflict, the old ARA Santa Fe was knocked out and captured by the Royal Navy at South Georgia. Further anti-submarine operations followed on 1 May 1982, when ARA San Luis attacked Royal Navy warships, and, in turn, was counterattacked, resulting in scenes reminiscent of those from the movie Das Boot. Avoiding its pursuers, the boat distanced before re-attacking, a few days later – when multiple factors conspired to prevent it from becoming successful. Despite systematic pursuit by warships and helicopters of the Royal Navy, the submarine eventually returned to its home port in one piece. Because the other Argentinean Type-209, ARA Salta, was non-operational, the withdrawal of the ARA San Luis also prompted the withdrawal of all the major units of the Argentine Navy into shallow waters off the coast of South America. Although the undersea battlefield was thus actually empty of Argentine submarines, elements of the Royal Navy’s task force continued detecting and tracking multiple sonar contacts over the following days and weeks. Indeed, they ultimately fired no fewer than 31 torpedoes, 49 depth-charges and 21 mortar salvoes at these. POSSUB! Or Bring me back his Hat! is the story of the crews of 22 warships, submarines, anti-submarine-warfare helicopters, and Nimrod submarine-hunter aircraft, their intensive and advanced training, and combat experiences – a richly illustrated story that has never been told before.

The naval warfare of the last few decades appears dominated by operations of fast missile craft and a wide diversity of other minor vessels in so-called ‘littoral warfare’. On the contrary, skills and knowledge about anti-submarine warfare on the high seas – a discipline that dominated much of the World War II, and once used to be the reason for existence of large fleets of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and of the Warsaw Pact – appear nearly extinct. Indeed, it seems that no armed conflicts involving this form of naval warfare have been fought for a significant time. As so often, the reality is entirely different. Submarine and anti-submarine warfare remain one of most sophisticated forms of armed conflicts to this day. Unsurprisingly, considering the amount of high-technology equipment necessary for their conduct, they are shrouded behind a thick veil of secrecy. This is why the operations of the sole Argentinean aircraft carrier – ARA 25 de Mayo – during the much-publicised war in the South Atlantic of 1982 remain largely unknown until this very day. It is well-known that the United Kingdom deployed the largest task force its Royal Navy had assembled since the Korean War over 12,000 kilometres away from home. It is well-known that the operations of this task force proved decisive for the outcome of the war: it not only brought the air power that established itself in control of the air space over the battlefield, but also hauled all the troops and supplies necessary to recover the islands that were the core of the dispute. However, the impression created very early during this conflict – and largely maintained until today – is that ARA 25 de Mayo and other elements of the accompanying Task Force 79 of the Argentinean Navy were forced into a hurried withdrawal by the sheer presence of multiple nuclear attack submarines of the Royal Navy. Based on years of research, including extensive investigation into naval operations of both sides of the conflict, ‘A Carrier at Risk’ is a vibrant and lucid account of a week-long cat-and-mouse game between anti-submarine warfare specialists on board ARA 25 de Mayo, and multiple nuclear attack submarines of the Royal Navy: an entirely unknown, yet crucial aspect of the South Atlantic War. Illustrated by over 100 photographs, maps, and colour profiles, this volume closes one of the major gaps – though also a crucially important affair – in the coverage of this conflict.