Colonel Doug Dildy (USAF Ret), with the assistance of Hernan Casciani and Pablo Calcaterra, analysed in the May 2012 issue of Aviation News the attacks on ships by Argentinian fast-jets trying to stop the UK landing troops on the Falklands
The three weeks between the UK’s initial challenge to Argentina’s occupation of the Falklands/ Malvinas and the Royal Navy’s amphibious Task Group (TG) 317.0 actually showing up to do something about it, was a period of rotten weather allowing only occasional clashes between the opposing forces. Nevertheless, on May 4, Comando de Aviación Naval (Argentine Naval Aviation, COAN) Super Etendards fired an Exocet missile to destroy the Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield, which was on station as a picket ship, convincing Rear Admiral John ‘Sandy’ Woodward to keep his two aircraft carriers well beyond the reach of this lethal – but numerically tiny – anti-ship capability.
