Imperialist fools! With two of Holland's underwater sea devils in the possession of the glorious maritime forces of Venezuela, any English fleet that dare lay by our naval base at Caracas will be instantly vanquished! (Twirls moustache)

Can Venezuela Defeat England?

Venezuela who?

Scraping the bottoms of the barrels with this poll lmao...:rotfl:

Yes those figures are correct fatty.

I was referring to the main "Naval" engagement of that war.

After the sinking of the General Belgrano the Argentinean Navy returned to port for the duration of hostilities. The losses you quote were inflicted by land based aircraft and ground forces.

As this is a Submarine based forum I was trying to illustrate the shear dominance of the SSN in blue water operations.

Stategically the sinking of the General Belgrano was huge. It proved the dangers of approaching the exclusion zone, thus denying resupply from sea. This then left resupply from air as the only option. An option long known to be fraught with difficulty. Even more so if there is only one usable runway.

Today 25 years on the same submarine/s that patrol the oceans have the ability to close airfields themselves. Were a conflict such as the Falklands War to be repeated the antagonists would have to be certain they could eliminate UK SSNs. Whilst not an expert on Venezuelan ASW capability I believe this is a task beyond their reach.

I'll say it again "Sabre Rattling"

Though something else for the UK goverment to keep its eye on.....

Trouble at home, whiping up the population against a foreign power... ect...
Not a new trick in politics, one I'm sure all readers can think of a few examples of throughout history.

If it hadn't of been for the loss of the Atlantic Conveyor and the equipment they were preparing to disembark from her, the conflict would have been shortened further :yep:

With that kind of talk its totally possible he will try to take some of the British, French and Dutch islands of the coast of Venezuela.

And walk the plank in the end :arrgh!:

And I thought this was another cricket or rugby thread.

Dare I slip the word "Northern" in here? :)

On the topic: some days ago in another thread I reminded of the fact that an Argentine sub, a class 209, was close to sinking the British flagship, a carrier, but all 8 torpedoes fired did miss for the crew had attached the wires in a wrong way, so the torps were not to be controlled after having been launched. The British admiral later admitted that the sinking of that carrier would have caused the immediate retreat of the British fleet, and the loss of the Falkland war. I'm sure that 8 impacting German torpedoes would have made sure to get that sinking done.

Argentina was very close to defeat the British. You may want to take that into account before being too sure that a British fleet would win against a foreign navy in foreign waters that easily. I am sure that Britain was not the only nation on earth learning the lessons from the Falkland war. One failed sub attack made the difference only.

In naval exercises, a SA sub, also a type 209, recently has sunk a complete NATO armada without being detected. Take this also into account.

P.S. Venezuela operates two type-209.

I agree with you jimbuna, The U.S.A. is not going to let an ally such as yourselves down. I believe the vast majority of American wouldn't stand for it.

Pleased to hear it sir :up: