weasel1962
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Re:
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Falklands Island defence force
- Thread starter jaffo4011
- Start date
Have not found the cost per unit on the STEYR yet.
L85A2 - 1,715 pounds per unit (approx.)
L85A1 - 1,000 pounds per unit (approx.)
This is if you could buy one, the production ended in 1996(?). I guess this is yet another reason the FIDF doesn't use them, not possible to buy, and looking at that price tag not very cost effective.
L85A2 - 1,715 pounds per unit (approx.)
L85A1 - 1,000 pounds per unit (approx.)
This is if you could buy one, the production ended in 1996(?). I guess this is yet another reason the FIDF doesn't use them, not possible to buy, and looking at that price tag not very cost effective.
Pedro Monteiro
New Member
This month, Air Forces Monthly also as a good article about the british forces.
All the best,
Pedro Monteiro
All the best,
Pedro Monteiro
The people who live on the Islands consider themselves British not Argentinian, it's a similar situation to the people of Gibraltar. The Falklands war was fully justifiable.
oakey,dokey then and also in the same spirit can we please also apply to have america returned to our jurisdiction as i seem to recall that used to be ours and was taken by force! ...after all it only seems fair to put that to arbitration too............. thanking you in anticipation:
Then I think the Palestinians have an even more justifiable case they were only booted out less than 60 years ago.
Might makes right we all know that don't we.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #28
fine by me...give them back!
(might want to ask the israeli's first though as its not.technically,a british problem nowadays)
Falkland Islands Defence Force
So, is the Defence Force just a Light Infantry Company or has it Change since The Falkland Islands War? Because a Light Infantry Company Seems kinda Small to be the Island's Main Defense Force, I understand that UK has more Military Units there since the The War, but I thought the FIDF would of got an up graded to like a Detachment of Mechanized Infantry, Light Cavalry or an Air Assault Unit. But I just thought that they would get an Up Grade to at least to keep up with the Modern World :coffee
So, is the Defence Force just a Light Infantry Company or has it Change since The Falkland Islands War? Because a Light Infantry Company Seems kinda Small to be the Island's Main Defense Force, I understand that UK has more Military Units there since the The War, but I thought the FIDF would of got an up graded to like a Detachment of Mechanized Infantry, Light Cavalry or an Air Assault Unit. But I just thought that they would get an Up Grade to at least to keep up with the Modern World :coffee
The FIDF is part of the garrison but it's a civilian defence force recruited from the local population, there's also a regular British Army infantry company based on the islands 24/7/365.
Note: A very handy figure people toss around is "Oh there's like 1000 british infantry" on the island, which isn't correct. There are over 1000 military personnel but in terms of frontline infantry there is still one company, the rest is RAF personel (Operating + maintaining 4 Typhoons, one VC-10 tanker and a C-130 i think + a couple of SAR Sea Kings) and general logistics people, Rapier AA battery operators, HMS Clyde + HMS Edinburgh (T42 destoyer) is relieving HMS Dauntless in the region.
In February of this year the company was provided by 2nd Scots, it's probably changed by now though.
There's not much point in deploying something like the Paras or something highly specialised, the tasks the Army would be expected to do would be well within the capabilities of a regular British Army infantry company.
Most of the key land units are still stationed in Afghanistan, a regular light infantry company is perfectly acceptable now. Considering what there is ~300 miles away it'd be fine. Logistically it's easier to deploy a light infantry company abroad than a mechanised company and I expect most of the air assault units - rightly so - are tagged for 16 AAB as the current rapid reaction brigade.
BBC puts the numbers at a regular company ~100 men with ~200 reservists that make up the FIDF. Interesting to note that any images of the FIDF show them armed with the Steyr AUG, if it's rugged enough for the Aussies then it's rugged enough for the FIDF
Note: A very handy figure people toss around is "Oh there's like 1000 british infantry" on the island, which isn't correct. There are over 1000 military personnel but in terms of frontline infantry there is still one company, the rest is RAF personel (Operating + maintaining 4 Typhoons, one VC-10 tanker and a C-130 i think + a couple of SAR Sea Kings) and general logistics people, Rapier AA battery operators, HMS Clyde + HMS Edinburgh (T42 destoyer) is relieving HMS Dauntless in the region.
In February of this year the company was provided by 2nd Scots, it's probably changed by now though.
There's not much point in deploying something like the Paras or something highly specialised, the tasks the Army would be expected to do would be well within the capabilities of a regular British Army infantry company.
Most of the key land units are still stationed in Afghanistan, a regular light infantry company is perfectly acceptable now. Considering what there is ~300 miles away it'd be fine. Logistically it's easier to deploy a light infantry company abroad than a mechanised company and I expect most of the air assault units - rightly so - are tagged for 16 AAB as the current rapid reaction brigade.
BBC puts the numbers at a regular company ~100 men with ~200 reservists that make up the FIDF. Interesting to note that any images of the FIDF show them armed with the Steyr AUG, if it's rugged enough for the Aussies then it's rugged enough for the FIDF
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Hey, thanks for clearing that up for me.
One More Question..
The FIDF is just a Standard Light Company with Rifle Platoons or are they more Multi-Role Personnel, Like are they branched of into Infantry, Recon, SARs and Law Enforcement Sections or just into Standard Rifle Teams.
One More Question..
The FIDF is just a Standard Light Company with Rifle Platoons or are they more Multi-Role Personnel, Like are they branched of into Infantry, Recon, SARs and Law Enforcement Sections or just into Standard Rifle Teams.
Most of the info on the FIDF I can find is patchy at best (Even Wiki goes down to say "Sniper Rifles" as part of their equipment, nothing specific), in terms of civilian operations they'll probably be similar to what UK troops are like in the UK, there's 2 SAR Sea Kings on the island but apart from that I have little to no idea.
I expect they'll have a regular infantry company mirroring the British Army component already down there - maybe a bit bigger. But the rest IMO would be specialised roles recon etc, I'd be surprised if out of ~200 members the FIDF didn't have some sort of sniper/DM rifle.
The linked video is supposedly a FIDF recruitment video and you can see a ghillied up sniper at some points with a rifle of unknown origin (Haven't yet picked up my stock of energy drinks to keep up with tonight so i'm a bit tired).
Couple of things I picked out was SAW varient of the AUG ~0:37 with (what looks like) an SA80 with UGL - British troops joint training exercise maybe?
Very interesting point for me was 1:12, at first I thought "Well that's just the FIDF playing with British Army toys", but on closer inspection the rifle is a Steyr HS50 so IMO there's the potential for it to be a FIDF toy.
Of course, this all depends on if it's a legitimate FIDF video
I expect they'll have a regular infantry company mirroring the British Army component already down there - maybe a bit bigger. But the rest IMO would be specialised roles recon etc, I'd be surprised if out of ~200 members the FIDF didn't have some sort of sniper/DM rifle.
The linked video is supposedly a FIDF recruitment video and you can see a ghillied up sniper at some points with a rifle of unknown origin (Haven't yet picked up my stock of energy drinks to keep up with tonight so i'm a bit tired).
Couple of things I picked out was SAW varient of the AUG ~0:37 with (what looks like) an SA80 with UGL - British troops joint training exercise maybe?
Very interesting point for me was 1:12, at first I thought "Well that's just the FIDF playing with British Army toys", but on closer inspection the rifle is a Steyr HS50 so IMO there's the potential for it to be a FIDF toy.
Of course, this all depends on if it's a legitimate FIDF video
They're considerably better equipped than in the 80's - and the nearest belligerent neighbour has no amphibious capability to speak of, and only two C130's available to drop paratroops. Considering the threat they're facing, they're light, mobile with quad bikes and a range of light to heavy machine guns, with an embedded RMC instructor.
Frankly, the idea of an irate bunch of sheep farmers on quad bikes with HMG's would scare the bejesus out of me so perhaps it has the same effect on the Argentine forces ?
Definitely.
Not to mention that any training from British Army troops they get will most probably be from infantry with several tours of Afghan/Iraq under their belt and have the "I was there" T-shirt.
Factor in what you said with a VERY in depth knowledge of the land, weather patterns and what the combination of that can have on certain parts of the island at different times of the year (My dad could look out of the window and identify which of the fields will be worst affected and what'd be the easiest route to a particular field so I expect they'd be able to have a similar gut feeling). Very formidable, IMO.
Not to mention that any training from British Army troops they get will most probably be from infantry with several tours of Afghan/Iraq under their belt and have the "I was there" T-shirt.
Factor in what you said with a VERY in depth knowledge of the land, weather patterns and what the combination of that can have on certain parts of the island at different times of the year (My dad could look out of the window and identify which of the fields will be worst affected and what'd be the easiest route to a particular field so I expect they'd be able to have a similar gut feeling). Very formidable, IMO.
Strange choice from a commonality point of view. Nothing wrong with the Steyr, but that to me would be the equivalent of us equipping a locally raised Ares unit on Christmas Island with SA80's. Interestingly according to Wiki, the Argentine army are re-equipping with Steyr AUG - maybe it has something to do with that?BBC puts the numbers at a regular company ~100 men with ~200 reservists that make up the FIDF. Interesting to note that any images of the FIDF show them armed with the Steyr AUG, if it's rugged enough for the Aussies then it's rugged enough for the FIDF
I was wondering that too, I (very briefly) looked into it and the 2 following reasons seemed the most . . "popular"
1) That when the UK selected the L85A1, the FIDF was very low down on the UKs list on rearmament, UK's armed forces + cadets etc were all first in line to receive the weapons and the FIDF didn't want to wait to replace their L1A1 SLRs
Personally I have issues with this because post '82 they probably had more small arms they could possibly ever want in the form of the FN FAL (nothing stopping them using it on semi auto) from the Argentines so was there really a particularly pressing need for new 5.56 weapons now considering the success of the SLR in the campaign?
2) When the FIDF wanted a new weapon it was right at the time where the L85A1 was having really bad 'teething troubles' (need I say more) so the FIDF thought "No thanks" and went for the AUG which (i think) was performing fine and had lots of lovely variants from which the FIDF could go "I want X of these, Y of those and Z of them".
One comment that seemed relevant was that they may be a BOT, but being a self governing territory they had no real obligation to buy UK weaponry and selected weapons that suited their tactical needs at the time. Were they to re-evaluate their stock and were given the L85A2 to task with, personally I believe they'd be more than happy to use it, it just seems like how the A1 was performing put them off.
Apart from that, I can't really find too much on the FIDF let alone why they went for the AUG.
1) That when the UK selected the L85A1, the FIDF was very low down on the UKs list on rearmament, UK's armed forces + cadets etc were all first in line to receive the weapons and the FIDF didn't want to wait to replace their L1A1 SLRs
Personally I have issues with this because post '82 they probably had more small arms they could possibly ever want in the form of the FN FAL (nothing stopping them using it on semi auto) from the Argentines so was there really a particularly pressing need for new 5.56 weapons now considering the success of the SLR in the campaign?
2) When the FIDF wanted a new weapon it was right at the time where the L85A1 was having really bad 'teething troubles' (need I say more) so the FIDF thought "No thanks" and went for the AUG which (i think) was performing fine and had lots of lovely variants from which the FIDF could go "I want X of these, Y of those and Z of them".
One comment that seemed relevant was that they may be a BOT, but being a self governing territory they had no real obligation to buy UK weaponry and selected weapons that suited their tactical needs at the time. Were they to re-evaluate their stock and were given the L85A2 to task with, personally I believe they'd be more than happy to use it, it just seems like how the A1 was performing put them off.
Apart from that, I can't really find too much on the FIDF let alone why they went for the AUG.
Forgot to actually link the video -_- (+ do you mean Psychedelic?)
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jKHPj1Pp7g"]Falkland Islands Defence Force - Recruitment 2012 - YouTube[/nomedia]
Looks pretty good, but like I said not 100% sure if it's legitimate or "fan made". Should emphasise it certainly seems like it's a light company, the islands don't really have the facilities or capabilities for it to be any other type; armoured (Warrior), mechanised (bulldog), air assault.
A dug in force of ~230 light infantry with ~70 tasked for specialised roles; scouting/recon etc should be entirely sufficient considering the sort of weapons available to the British infantry company that weren't available in the past.
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jKHPj1Pp7g"]Falkland Islands Defence Force - Recruitment 2012 - YouTube[/nomedia]
Looks pretty good, but like I said not 100% sure if it's legitimate or "fan made". Should emphasise it certainly seems like it's a light company, the islands don't really have the facilities or capabilities for it to be any other type; armoured (Warrior), mechanised (bulldog), air assault.
A dug in force of ~230 light infantry with ~70 tasked for specialised roles; scouting/recon etc should be entirely sufficient considering the sort of weapons available to the British infantry company that weren't available in the past.
Strangelove
New Member
Not a regiment; more like a company. Only 50 men I believe. The real strength is the Roulement regular force deployed there from the British Army's main order of battle.
I'd like to see a source for that number of 50 please, not because i'm disagreeing with you, more that i've never actually seen a proper figure given as an estimate as to the size of the company.
AFAIK the general figure thrown around for a company is 100, but i'd love to be shown otherwise in this respect.
AFAIK the general figure thrown around for a company is 100, but i'd love to be shown otherwise in this respect.