Guy Alcala wrote in message
...
Evan Brennan wrote:
The entire emotional palette of your pet beliefs is predicated
on the idea that the Sea Harrier, but not fuel consumption of
the Argentine jets, was the main influence on the tactics of
Argentine flights from the mainland to the Falklands.

I've never claimed anything of the kind, but feel free to point out
where you think I did.

But you said:
"they [Mirages] avoided the Sea harriers, but didn't on May 1st.
So what changed? The answer is, they got beat early, and decided to
throw in the A-A towel"

I said there wasnt' much ACM in the first place, for lack of fuel.
And, everyone but yourself agrees that the bombing by the Vulcan
influenced Argentina to reserve the Mirage for local air defense.


Fuel reserves played a part

The main part, where Argentine fast jets were concerned.

Then there's the huge advantage of the AIM-9L on the British side;
then the prewar ACM exercises that gave the British an important
edge. Then there was the matter of the Black Buck raid that caused
redeployment of the Mirage. The Harrier itself was a lesser factor,
in comparison.


weapons played a part, a/c capability played a part, tactics played
a part


The Argentine Mirage pilots felt they may have had a better chance
in a brief fight at high altitude, where their aircraft (but not
necessarily their missiles) had better performance. And better fuel
efficiency. But the Harrier pilots were unwilling to climb up there to
meet them.


You have
implied elsewhere that there was a significant amount of
manuevering, positioning and set-up by the Argentine jets on
May 1st, which is not true. In fact there was minimal ACM by
them, and even less later. More to follow.

I've never claimed that there was a significant amount of ACM
(I'd say a grand total of two occasions), but there was "maneuvering,
positioning and set up", on May 1st, albeit limited. If you think
I've claimed otherwise, please provide a cite.


Well you did say the Daggers and Mirages "forfeited the match and gave
the Brits a free ride after May 1st, because the Brits had achieved a
moral ascendancy over them" -- not because there was any question of
Argentine jets having enough fuel to carry out dogfights using their
inferior missiles.

To repeat, there wasn't much ACM anyhow but you seemed to be implying
that there was, and that it suddenly stopped mainly because of the
Harrier.


We know they rarely did so, the question is "why not, when
they had done so for a large number of sorties on May 1st?"

Oh? How many Daggers carried air-to-air missiles on May 1st?
We already know the Skyhawks did not.

According to "F:TAW", 12 A/A Dagger sorties were tasked on 1 May,
with 11 launched


Since when is '11' a "large number" of sorties?'. : )


and your conspiracy
theory that a few decoy flights somehow proves that the Mirages were
not held back because they anticipated bombings of the mainland.

Not a conspiracy theory, just an acknowledgement that there were other
reasons why they conceded the A/A battle to the Brits after 1 May


This another of your unsubstantiated pet beliefs. I can find no
authority, Argentine or British, who agrees. All say that the Vulcan
strike on Port Stanley convinced Argentina of possible attack and
that's what convinced them to reserve Group 8 for air defence of the
mainland.


If Moro is a propagandist -- Sharkey is Dr. Goebbels.


Hardly. At least Sharkey's got success on his side


I'm sure the French Mirage pilots would say just that to Sharkey
regarding their success against his beloved Sea Harrier. ; )