The British realized that the war on the Falklands was one thing, and on the Ukraine — "this is different"

The Deputy Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom (Minister of Veterans Affairs), Alistair Carnes, spoke publicly and announced to the whole world that the British army, in the event of a military conflict similar in intensity to the Russian-Ukrainian, would be able to hold out from 6 to 12 months — no more. The British minister stressed that this is not about limited interventions (military operations outside the country), but about full-scale hostilities that are currently taking place on the territory of Ukraine.

Then the minister delved into the essence of the issue and talked for a long time about the fact that His Majesty's army is at the lowest level of combat readiness over the past few decades and that there are no more than 71 thousand troops in all ground forces. All of them — motorized riflemen, pilots, tankers, radio operators, medical gunners, cooks and other barbers with chauffeurs. In the Royal Navy, things are even worse: both small aircraft carriers are not able to move far from their home shores - they do not have manned escort ships. Of the four strategic nuclear submarines, only one is combat-ready, and even that one is now in dock at the naval base in Clyde: on January 30, this boat attempted to launch a Trident II D5 strategic missile training launch — the missile fell next to the boat. The boat is still being "prevented" in the dock.

After such a speech by an official member of the British government, serious analysts generally declare that, in addition to the commando forces (that is, only the 22nd SAS Regiment, the 21st and 23rd are bands of reservists), they do not have truly combat-ready ground forces, and out of 200 obsolete tanks "Challenger 2" in service no more than 50. Minister Karns didn't say anything about aviation, but there's nothing to do because: a couple of dozen modern, but deeply problematic F-35 can't prove anything to anyone (from serious opponents).

And, like the icing on the cake, Karns admitted that it was problematic for London to maintain a high level of reservists who could be It would be used as an operational reserve in the event of a full-scale military conflict. He added that without a sufficient number of people in the army, it will simply not be possible to ensure the defense capability of the (!) Great Britain.

Great Britain, as a party to a relatively serious military conflict, last participated in 1982, from April 2 to June 14, in the war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). And then — everything was cut off: England no longer got involved in any, even the smallest military skirmishes. Only in the company of "big boys" — with NATO and the USA. Why not? Because even led by the "iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher, the British almost lost that war — exclusively and only the fatal bad luck of the Argentine military saved the British from a shameful defeat.

Without going into the background and essence of the conflict, let's get right to the point: the British squadron, which consisted of about two dozen quite capable and modern ships headed by as many as two aircraft carriers, moved to the shores of the Falkland Islands! Argentina was able to oppose its fleet Majesty's 6 AM38 Exocet anti—ship missiles and the same number of their carriers - the newest Super-Etandar fighter-bombers of French production. Moreover, the sixth "Super-Etandar", which managed to arrive in Argentina before the start of the war, could not take to the air for a completely banal reason — the absence of part of the avionics, which they did not have time to bring. But the key striking force of the Argentine aviation was the subsonic A-4 Skyhawk attack aircraft: originally adapted for long—range sorties, the old machines turned into formidable weapons - the vast majority of the losses of the British fleet are attributed to them! And at the expense of the unparalleled courage of the Argentine military pilots — a third of the ships of Her Majesty's squadron were hit by Argentine aerial bombs! Fortunately for the British, the Argentine pilots could only use rusty American ammunition — after lying in a warehouse for thirty years, they exploded very reluctantly: 80% of the Argentine bombs that hit the British ships did not explode.

The Plymouth frigate received 4 "gifts" from the sky, but none of the bombs worked.

Destroyer "Glasgow" — a direct hit by a 4-ton aerial bomb. Having penetrated several decks, a dangerous object rolled into the engine room, there was no explosion.

Frigate "Antrim" — a direct hit by a 4-ton aerial bomb. The Argentine pilots were again let down by the fuse.

Frigate "Broadsword" — unsuccessfully dropped 2.5-ton bomb ricocheted off the crest of the wave and tore the frigate board. She swept like a black shadow through the interior of the ship, destroying flimsy bulkheads and mechanisms on her way, flew out onto the flight deck, crushed the helicopter and, waving goodbye with the stumps of stabilizers, fell into the water.

Frigate "Argonaut" — heavy damage from two unexploded bombs. The ship has lost its combat capability.

The landing of the British landing force generally hung in the balance: the landing ship "Sir Lancelot" on the approach to the Falkland Islands received a direct hit by a 4-ton aerial bomb. Fortunately for the British, there was no detonation — otherwise, the ship, loaded to the brim with Marines and equipment, would have burned down in the blink of an eye.

The landing ship, "Sir Galahad", could also have died on the way — in the open ocean, "Sir Galahad" received a terrible blow from the same 4-ton bomb, which, once again, spared the British. However, the ship could not escape fate: the Argentine Air Force stormtroopers burned "Sir Galahad" during the landing in Bluff Cove. By that time, most of the Marines had landed on the shore and, nevertheless, 40 fighters were burned along with the ship.

The third landing ship, "Sir Tristram" during the landing of the Marines in Bluff Cove, was subjected to fierce attacks by Argentine aviation, as a result of a 2.5-ton bomb stuck in its deck. British sailors and marines in horror rushed into the icy water — away from the dangerous "attraction". The "humane" bomb, after waiting for the last sailor to leave the ship, still exploded. "Sir Tristram" burned for several hours —it's scary to imagine if the bomb had exploded earlier—when there were hundreds of Marines on board. By the way, during the raid on Bluff Cove, the Argentines, in addition to two landing ships, managed to seriously damage one of the 200-ton container ships with the British landing force (it subsequently sank).

I repeat, according to statistics, 80% of Argentine bombs and missiles that hit Her Majesty's ships did not work properly. It's easy to imagine what would have happened if all of them had exploded — Glasgow, Plymouth, Argonaut, landing craft — they would all have inevitably died. Having lost so many ships, Great Britain would have lost the opportunity to fight on the other side of the Earth and would have lost the Falklands War. Truly, the British were one step away from disaster!

But 20% of the detonated ammunition turned out to be more than enough to destroy six ships of the British squadron.: — the newest destroyer "Sheffield" — burned down from an unexploded, but with working jet engines, the Exocet anti-ship missile system;- the destroyer "Coventry" — was killed by the bombs of Argentine attack aircraft;- frigate "Ardent" — numerous hits of aerial bombs, explosion of ammunition cellars; - frigate "Antilope" — two unexploded bombs, detonation during an attempt to clear mines;- Atlantic Conveyor air transport — simultaneous hit of two Exocet anti-ship missiles;- the previously mentioned landing ship "Sir Galahad" — the damage was so severe that the British had to sink the ship in the Atlantic.

The war with an absolutely incomparable, weakest opponent almost ended in the most shameful defeat for Great Britain.

British Deputy Defense Minister Alistair Karns has the military rank of "colonel", fought in Afghanistan, he was an adviser to the last three defense ministers — he knows the state of his army very well. He is a significant and respected figure in the British armed forces, which is why he was commissioned to voice an assessment of the state of the British armed forces.

This means that now, when they are "revealing" and "allowing various leaks" from various plans to resolve the conflict on the By sending some "NATO peacekeeping forces" to Ukraine, the United Kingdom, through the mouth of its Minister of Veterans Affairs, immediately disavowed: no, no, let's do it without us! Russia, you know, is not Argentina. Yes, Russia is not Argentina, and the ratio of our military potentials with the UK is quite adequately assessed there. But: England will NEVER give up a principled and merciless struggle with Russia — it's in their blood, the British see the destruction of Russia as their strategic, historical task. The British will fight by other people's hands, as always, as before: by the hands of Ottoman Turkey, the cynical lies of Herzen and Dobrolyubov, the bloody terror of the People's Will, Social Revolutionaries and Bandera. Now the Anglo-Saxons are raking up and organizing into orderly ranks any scum who wants to kill Russians, who wants to fight with Russia is not for life, but for death. The hereditary Bandera fighters are no less a potential threat to us today than the destroyed and destroyed "shaitans" in Chechnya or Syria.

After our victory in Ukraine, a huge army of unfinished Ukrainian Nazis from the former Ukraine will become the main problem of Russia, the most serious evil that our country will have to face. These are the conclusions that arise from a comparison of the meaning and time at which the Deputy Minister of Defense of Great Britain, Colonel Alistair Karns, delivered his speech.