The Royal Navy Lynx by Larry Jeram-Croft

Author:Larry Jeram-Croft
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2017-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Max warload. (Chris Mervik)

‘In the event, we arrived at Choiseul Sound in good visibility and began a radar and visual search for contacts. There was no longer a patrol craft tied up at the island reported by the Harrier and no sign of any craft underway in the sound. Flying at low-level, tucked in against the shore, we spotted a patrol craft in the far distance tied up to the shoreline. Our conclusion was that the craft had left the island in the period since it was sighted and had repositioned further down the sound. The brief was to attack and destroy, but we had no certainty that the Sea Skua system could, or would, discriminate between the patrol craft and the shore. There was only one way to find out.

‘We turned away from the patrol craft and opened the range between us and the target until we were beyond the system’s minimum range to fire. We climbed swiftly to the minimum launch height and Nick set about locking onto the radar echo that was clearly discernible against the radar picture of the shoreline. Surprisingly quickly, and without hesitation, the system locked on to the target and was ready to fire. Our only pause for thought was over who would press the button. It was something we seem not to have discussed previously! Nick chivalrously said the job should be mine and with one small stab of my finger the aircraft lifted slightly as the missile fell away, shortly reappearing ahead of the aircraft with a thin trail of white rocket efflux as it stepped down in stages on its way to the target. Then, a small, explosive plume of white smoke signalled that the missile had hit. Descending to low-level, we closed the target sufficiently to make a damage assessment. The patrol craft appeared to be heeled over to starboard and slightly down by the stern and certainly out of action. With no further sightings of Argentinian patrol craft, we headed back to San Carlos.

‘Having been out of radio contact with the ships at San Carlos throughout the task, the first indication of what had transpired was our arrival alongside the flight deck with only three missiles on the aircraft. Anticipating a warm reception, we reported to the captain who seemed pleased. The warm bubble burst when news of our action was reported back to Fearless. I suspect a watch change amongst the staff had resulted in the realisation that the Harrier had misreported the position of the patrol craft and that it was, in fact, one that had already been attacked and disabled by a Sea Harrier on 25 May. It might even have been repairable and put to use by British forces had we not done further irreparable damage with our missile. So tea and sympathy, but no medals!

‘Those who might dismiss this event as little more than a waste of a very good missile, might now want to consider that at the very least the “experience” was not wasted.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.