you don’t need a carrier battle force to project power anymore, all the Brits need to do is put one of their subs offshore loaded with tomahawk missiles. One good volley and most of Argentina’s Navy is at the bottom of sea and their air force and army bases are smoking ruins. The new UK sub can hold 38 tomahawks and the older class around 30. Good luck swimming to the Falkland Islands.
The Argies have very high quality German subs that can stay submerged for a month.
Finding them in coastal waters is unbelievably difficult.
They are extremely quiet, and a true danger to British nuke subs and the one destroyer they maintain in the area.
And the fact remains, the Brits can play defense against amphibious landings, and little else.
Subs can do nothing against a surprise Airborne attack that wipes out the FOUR fighters, and the company sized garrison based on the islands.
Once a mere four fighters were dealt with, in one sneak attack, or in one well executed act of sabotage, it’s over. The argies can land all the troops they wish by air.
And that* is where carriers come in. England has absolutely no way to contest control of the air as they did in 81. There is no friendly airfield in South America that I’m aware of. Any approaching RN ships are at the mercy of exocet firing jets, and silent electric subs.
All the English can do is create about 150 explosions against a low tech enemy the size of California. After that, they are done.
Your sub attack scenario is flawed. The Brits will not START the war. So the Argie jets will be dispersed at the beginning. The Argie navy need not even sortie except for the subs,,,which left weeks before.
The Brits simply cannot put an aircraft over Argentina, or the Falklands except for four. These Brit jets can disperse to exactly two airfields.
So the war goes like this. If the argies can find ANY way to launch a surprise attack and wipe out those four jets. (sub launched missiles, commandos, treachery, two jets zooming in low at dawn with a load of cluster bombs). All the Brits could do is blockaide the sea approaches and stamp their feet. But there is no Brit fleet to come to the rescue as in 81. Without aircover, they are dead.
Yes, carriers are essential to power projection if you intend to make a landing. And even though they have one flat top left for helos, the Harriers and their pilots are long gone.
The Brits are down to nothing for a military. It’s a fact.
Besides, the British sub force is in utter disarray. If they aren’t running aground in their home water, they are having crew go berserk and shoot up the officers. If thats ok, then it’s giving the Russians a list of every serial number and type of every nuke aboard.
And can anyone the RN of 1981 letting Iranians in a motorboat capture a RN boarding party within SIGHT of the mothership?