Exocet missile: the secret of the Argentine hunters that frightened the English in the Malvinas

On May 4, Lieutenant Commander Augusto Bedacarratz and Lieutenant Armando Mayora went hunting again. On the backs of two Super Etendard fighter-bombers, they took off from the Río Grande naval base towards the Malvinas Islands, the epicenter of a conflict that would rock the world for just over two months. They flew low to avoid English radars and fired their deadly round shortly after spotting the target. “Start now!” Two missiles slice through the wind toward a destroyer. Seconds before the debacle, a sailor on the target ship had time to announce the disaster: “Missile attack: hit the deck.” The shell hit directly in the operations room of ‘HMS Sheffield’ above the waterline. That was a debacle, which ABC recounted a day later: “The destroyer was sunk by Argentine aviation off the coast of the Malvinas Islands yesterday. An uncontrolled fire broke out, forcing the ship’s nearly 300 crew members to abandon ship. The sunken ship was registered D-80 and carried a Lynx helicopter armed with Mark 44 and Sea Dart anti-submarine torpedoes. This was the British task force’s first encounter with the Exocet AM 39 missiles, their greatest terror during the conflict. Flying Fish Never before has an animal caused so much damage on a ship. Named after the flying fish Exocoetidae, the Exocets were Nord Aviation’s response to the desperate call of the French Navy. The military lacked an efficient missile with the ability to shoot down surface targets, and it was placed in the hands of a company that still exists today, albeit under the MBDA conglomerate umbrella. Design began in 1967 when the MM 38 prototype was born and the first tests were conducted shortly thereafter, around 1972. According to Lieutenant Pablo Macchiavello in his essays on the subject, the projectile achieved a 91% impact rate. It was deadly. Related News standard No The Leclerc Mystery: Would the Fastest, Deadliest French Super Tank Defeat Putin’s Armored Beasts? Manuel P. Villatoro In his favor he has enviable mobility and the ability to shoot while moving; it lacks armor and its gun is no better than Rheinmetall’s. The first AM 38s were launched in 1975 and just two years later they had already been upgraded to the AM 39 model, their main difference, although there were dozens, that the latter could be fired from an aircraft against targets on the surface; what is called the surface of the air in technical jargon. “The operation of these missiles is relatively simple. The plane or helicopter that launches it, generally more than fifty kilometers from the destination, guides it to the destination in a first phase. In the final stages of its journey, the Exocet activates its own seeker head toward the target while the plane that launched it turns toward its base,” ABC explained in a 1991 article. The newspaper also emphasized that the Exocet has a It had a diameter of 0.34 meters, weighed 650 kilograms and had a radius of action of 70 kilometers. It could also carry 160 kilograms of explosives and had a speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour. Although his greatest asset, the one that made him the henchman of the men sent across the world by Margaret Thatcher to retake the ‘Falklands’, was precisely that he was assembled in Europe. “British passive systems did not sound an alarm because the emissions fired from the missile were deemed ‘friendly’,” ABC reported in the above-mentioned report. Change pages 404 Price 29.99 euros Editor Robinson This is confirmed by Francisco Cancio. The author of Amendment, a lengthy essay on the Malvinas War, claims that “the knowledge the Argentines had of the capabilities and bludgeons of the radars embarked the main destroyers that commanded the fleet, the famous “picket” or type, monitored”. 42, “allowed them to design a very good approach plan that made them virtually untraceable until takeoff.” The expert, who spent years studying the conflict through direct interviews, further confirms that “over the days the English have learned to identify the exocetes and, with the support of the French, have worked to take countermeasures”. Although that was “very late” when it was already late. English Terror On paper, the Malvinas War began on April 2, 1982, when two hundred Argentine soldiers seized the then British-flagged Falklands. “Argentinazo: Malvinas, recovered!” It was said in the local press. Thatcher called for battle, and in early May the vanguard of a gigantic armada, including two aircraft carriers and three nuclear submarines, arrived in the region. The goal: to disembark north of Isla Soledad, the largest, and capture Puerto Argentino, where most of the enemy army was stationed. Back then, the dictatorship only had five exocets and five launch planes. France had promised them ten more, but they never came. From there, Argentina began a race against time to get more flying fish. There were few to stop an army of this size. «They wanted to get so many others. The best-known case was an attempt by Peru. The idea was that a Peruvian merchant ship – the “ILO” according to speculation – would secretly embark Exocets for Argentina on May 20th. On paper yes, they were on their way to their country. In the end it seems that the French government itself stopped the delivery. It is also believed that they tried to get supplies via Sudan and Libya but failed,” says Cancio. In the end the dictatorship had only five left. And they would have to use them well. Exocet missile similar to the one that hit the destroyer in early May ABC On May 4, the first two Exocets were launched by Argentine Super Etendards. The first struck and condemned ‘HMS Sheffield’. The loss was painful for the British fleet which, as ABC explained, was one of the ‘task force”s best-armed ships: “The armament of destroyers of this type consists of a double ramp for sea missile launchers – darts , with a range of 46 kilometers; one 114 mm MK-8 gun and two 20 mm Oerelikon guns, and six Mark 16-inch torpedo tubes. The English Navy had only 14 of them, two of which, the ‘Glasgow’ and the ‘Coventry’, operated in the South Atlantic. The second Super Etendard fired at a “very large target”; in all probability without success the aircraft carrier “HMS Hermes”. Less than a month later, on May 25, the dictatorship wanted to repeat the success. The mission took place after a group of Harriers bombed Puerto Argentino facilities. Immediately afterwards, at around 1:30 p.m., four “Skyhawk” took off from the continent in search of revenge, but did not reach their destination. It was after six hours that two Super Etendards managed to break through the encirclement and fire their Exocets. “The tragedy concerns the loss of the destroyer “Coventry” (3,600 tons) and the large confiscated cargo ship “Atlántic” (16,000 tons). Observers of the conflict in London called it an “unlucky day”. A big hit. What nobody expected was that this counter-offensive would claim two ships of a similar caliber with 24 dead and more than 20 wounded,” ABC said. ‘HMS Sheffield’, after the ABC missile impact A dead silence followed, lasting until May 2nd, when the British sank the Argentine cruiser ‘General Belgrano’. This disaster caused the deaths of three hundred sailors and caused the military junta to return to port and never leave again. For this they rose into the air and tried to prevent the landing of the English with hunting strikes. As part of these operations, one of the most controversial events of the conflict took place: the alleged impact of an Exocet missile on the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible. The culprits: two Super Etendards who wanted to build on the successes of their colleagues. The reality is that today, four decades later, that coup is still a hot topic. «On the one hand, the English deny the sinking; on the other hand, the two Argentine pilots – Gerardo Isaac and Ernesto Ureta – confirm that they saw the missile impact,” reveals Cancio. The author of “Amendment” claims that “it is very likely” that one of the Exocets hit the aircraft carrier. “Until the files are released, I am sure that the rocket actually hit, tore a hole in the ship, exploded in the (fire-protected) hangar and that the sailors were able to extinguish the fire,” says the Spaniard. What he doesn’t share are the theses that it was sunk and a new one built to replace it. These are conspiracies. Related News Standard No. M1 Abrams, Leopard 2 or Israeli Merkava: what is the deadliest tank in modern warfare? Manuel P. Villatoro Standard No poisoned gift: T-72, the disgrace of the obsolete Soviet tank Morocco ceded to Ukraine Manuel P. Villatoro Aside from the fact that “HMS Invincible” stopped naming that day honor what is clear that the Exocets became the English nightmare in 1982. Or some plays that made the game much more exciting for some Britons who, as pointed out by Rear Admiral WC Abhau – of the “United States Navy” – had to travel thousands of kilometers to defend their territory: “When God conquered the Falkland Islands 380 miles from the Argentine coast, he must have wanted the South Atlantic conflict to be as interesting as possible. Had they been placed 100 miles further out, the Argentine Air Force would not have challenged the British “Task Force”. At 100 miles less, the British would have had to take the air bases in Argentina.