Falkland Islanders to hold referendum over sovereignty

[Dinner]

Skyhawks are frigging ancient. The originally flew in 1954 yet Argentina is still keeping them around? Come on, they're like three generations of fighters behind.

[MichaeltheGreat]

These are actually fairly slick. They have reworked airframes, engines, early F16 avionics - really not bad for a third world air force that likes to do flyovers on football games and the occasional air show. They were reworked later variant A4s - something like the A4M.

What's truly ancient are their fighters - Mirage IIIs? That's only slightly more advanced than a SPAD 13, with none of the coolness factor.

[Sava]

That's because the mother****ers already lived there. And the IED components they found and used were all over those ****hole countries, and much smaller than an Exocet.

BTW, the ground launch variant of the Exocet requires a launcher that is pretty specialized and huge compared to the missile itself. That launcher is larger then a small truck - it's larger than a mid-size truck, weighs a bunch, and is not something you can quickly field assemble.

The ground launch and air launch variants are totally different. For ground launch, you don't start with the forward velocity of the aircraft, nor can you accommodate the drop after separation that is designed into air launch missiles to protect the aircraft.

If you did try to launch from a truck, you'd blow your ass to smithereens and pieces of the missile might make it 100 yards or so. They're not like Estes rockets.

I'm certainly not an expert in such things. However, I wouldn't want to dismiss the possibility that human ingenuity could come up with a workable solution.

All of the components of the missile, including fire control cabinet and consoles, could fit in a two car garage. Obviously the launcher would need to be some distance from the control systems. But it isn't totally inconceivable that competent team of engineers could rig something up like that. Mythbusters does more complicated ****.

By no means am I making a case for the likeliest scenarios.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Somehow, docking in a port, unloading some rather big items, getting them onto trucks, having a cherry picker to unload, driving off to the boonies, unloading, then spending several hours field assembling everything in a hostile territory without being detected seems a bit more complicated.

[Sava]

Somehow, docking in a port, unloading some rather big items, getting them onto trucks, having a cherry picker to unload, driving off to the boonies, unloading, then spending several hours field assembling everything in a hostile territory without being detected seems a bit more complicated.

Maybe they are pretending to be part of an HGTV production. DIY Falklands!

[kentonio]

Ground Force did an episode on the Falklands. I'm never going to be able to look at Alan Titchmarsh in the same light again!

[N35t0r]

During the war, we actually took a couple of shipborne exocet launchers off a destroyer and fixed them on a mobile towed platform, which succeeding in hitting HMS Glamorgan.

The launcher was dubbed ITB (Instalación de Tiro Berreta) by the Argentine personnel, which approximately means in Argentine slang "trashy firing platform".

[Sava]

During the war, we actually took a couple of shipborne exocet launchers off a destroyer and fixed them on a mobile towed platform, which succeeding in hitting HMS Glamorgan.

not to in any way endorse the death of UK sailors

but Argentine ingenuity

[Dinner]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130305130447.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmost_popular+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Most+Popular+News%29

Biologists, working with an ancient DNA sample, have solved the mystery of where the Falkland Islands Wolf came from. The wolf species was the world's smallest and the only one to specialize in hunting birds but sadly sheep farmers in the 19th century hunted it to extinction fearing it would harm their sheep. The wolf, which was about the size of a large fox, was an example of island dwarfism.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Too bad they were hunted to extinction.

[DaShi]

The cure for cancer was probably in those wolves.

[Aeson]

It was best we eliminated them before evolution gave them the ability to fly. Sure, cancer sucks ... but at least it's not dog crap falling from the sky.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

The referendum takes place tomorrow. I wonder if, should the majority slip below 60%, the Argentine government will suddenly decide the views of the Islanders might be relevant after all?

[regexcellent]

I'm absolutely shaking in my boots with anticipation.

[Dinner]

Voting has begun. Any guesses on how many will vote to become part of Argentina?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21724160