Modern Naval Warfare

• published: 16 Jul 2014
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The Falklands War, was a ten-week war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over two British overseas territoriesin the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It began on Friday 2 April 1982 when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands (and, the following day, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands) in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it has long claimed over them. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force before making an amphibious assault on the islands. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, returning the islands to British control. 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and 3 Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities. USS Stark, a Perry class guided missile frigate, was under the command of Captain Glenn R. Brindel and was part of the Middle East Task Force. She was sailing off the Saudi Arabian coast near the Iran--Iraq War exclusion boundary, the area of sea off Iran and Iraq. The Iraqi pilot attacked with a Dassault Mirage F1 armed with 1,500 pound Exocet missiles. It took off from the airbase of Shaibah at 20:00 and headed south into thePersian Gulf also along the coast. The aircraft was flying 5,000 feet above the water at 550 miles per hour. An AWACS plane on patrol nearby, with an American and Saudi Arabian crew, first detected the incoming Iraqi jet and informed the Stark, which picked up the aircraft on radar, 200 miles out. When it came within view just before 10:00 pm, it was off the Stark's port side beam. Captain Brindel was not alarmed and he ordered his radioman to send a message at 10:09, "Unknown aircraft, this is U.S. Navy warship on your 078 for twelve miles. Request you identify yourself." When the message was not responded to, a second was sent but still there was no reply. At 10:10 Captain Brindel was informed that the Iraqi aircraft had locked his Cyrano-IV fire-control radar onto the ship. The F-1 fired a missile from twenty-two miles away and a second at fifteen miles, banked left, and began to withdraw. Stark's search radar and ESM systems failed to detect the incoming missiles and it was not until seconds before the first hit that the Americans realized they were under fire. The first Exocet came in at just over ten feet above the sea and struck the port side hull near the bridge. It failed to detonate but rocket fuel ignited and caused a large fire that spread throughout the post office, the store room, and the combat operations center. The second Exocet struck the port side as well and exploded, leaving a ten by fifteen foot hole in the frigate's side. Electronics for the Stark's Standard Missile defense went out and Captain Brindel did not order his men to return fire. The AWACS plane was still in the area and just after witnessing the attack, it radioed a nearby Saudi airbase to send aircraft for an interception but the ground controllers did not have the authority to order a sortie so the Iraqi jet escaped unharmed. The USN rules of engagement applicable at the time allowed the Stark to defend herself after sufficiently warning the hostile aircraft. Twenty-nine men were killed in the explosion and fire, and eight sailors died later of wounds. Twenty-one others were wounded. Of the thirty-seven dead, two Americans were lost at sea. The USS Cole bombing was a suicide attack against the United States Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Cole (DDG-67) on 12 October 2000, while it was harbored and being refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden. 17 American sailors were killed, and 39 were injured. This event was the deadliest attack against a United States Naval vessel since 1987. The terrorist organization al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. A U.S. judge has held Sudan liable for the attack, while another has released over $13 million in Sudanese frozen assets to the relatives of those killed. The American Navy has reconsidered their rules of engagement in response to this attack.