Does Falkland oil discovery mean France will assist defence of the Islands?

[just john]

Since Oil has been discovered in the Falklands (desire-shares-rocket-falkland-oil ) ; and
HMS-Invincible for £2m is up for scrap, MS Hermes is now Indian-Navy-aircraft-carrier-INS-Viraat-R-22-refuel-Harrier

Does this mean under the UK France defence pact France will now assist in defending any potential threat to the Islands?

[Edward Trunk]

Under the terms of the NATO treaty, France would be obliged to help a fellow member if it were attacked. It did this during the Falklands war. It had been supplying Exocet missiles to Argentina; as soon as the invasion began, it stopped this supply and gave the British intelligence about the stock of these missiles it believed Argentina to possess.

[NickP]

[quote user="Edward Trunk"]Under the terms of the NATO treaty, France would be obliged to help a fellow member if it were attacked. It did this during the Falklands war. It had been supplying Exocet missiles to Argentina; as soon as the invasion began, it stopped this supply and gave the British intelligence about the stock of these missiles it believed Argentina to possess.[/quote]

 A few weeks before the invasion Argentinian pilots were training in the UK. Also I believe that part of the French exocet missile was manufactured in the UK. Don't matter anyway,  the Argies won't try that again. [:D]

[Chancer]

They were made in the factory opposite me.

Numerous people have told me that when the news was announced that one of their missiles, which at that stage had never been used in real warfare, had sunk the HMS Sheffield a resounding cheer went up all through the factory.

Some people relate this to me with embarrassment, others take the time to explain the background to the sentiment and others really get a perverse kick out of telling me. 

I thought that the supply of weapons continued but just through the usual neutral intermediaries used in times of war.

[Gluestick]

Supplies did indeed continue, JRC.

And after a state of war between HM's Government and The Argentine was formally declared, quite a number of French technicians and engineers from Aerospatiale continued as before, installing the mountings and control interface systems to Argentinian Super Entendard aircraft.

When money and profit has to be weighed up against honouring treaties, then I'd cynically go with money every time. Sadly.

[pachapapa]

Etendard.

[Gluestick]

Or.........

Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard.

Even.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Gluestick"]Or.........

Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard.


Even.


[/quote]

Even better! The use of the accent with a capital letter is absolutely correct but perhaps betrays a copy/paste rather than true keyboard artistry.

[Gluestick]

Sadly, wrong again![;-)]

I inserted the acute accent above the uppercase "E" by use of the symbols available using the "Alt" key and apposite numeric codes.

In this particular case, "Alt" + 0201 on the right-hand numeric keypad with the Num Lock on.

I have a shortlist readily available by my PC.

[pachapapa]

Wrong a second time! Bad day. Always pictured you as being avant garde with a natty netbook and not having the ALT + trick available.

The ALT + SHIFT + NUMBER can be a tad frustrating.

[cooperlola]

They're measuring again......[Www][6]

[Gluestick]

For those who may be wondering what the hell all this is about, take a gander here.

Very useful for typing other languages.

See here:

[pachapapa]

And no use if you are on a netbook or laptop without a number pad. The only way is using the Character Table provided by Microsoft.

ÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉÉ[:D]

[pachapapa]

Rafales + Logiciels + Brésil +

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11926419

[:)]

[NickP]

[quote user="pachapapa"]

Rafales + Logiciels + Brésil +

[/quote]

Translation please?

[pachapapa]

[quote user="NickP"][quote user="pachapapa"]

Rafales + Logiciels + Brésil +

[/quote]

Translation please?

[/quote]

http://goo.gl/wHhGx

[NickP]

[quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="NickP"][quote user="pachapapa"]

Rafales + Logiciels + Brésil +

[/quote]

Translation please?

[/quote]

http://goo.gl/wHhGx

[/quote]

Still doesn't make sense, all the south american countries together with all the weapons they could buy could still never defeat the British spirit. The Falklands will always be British old boy, we will keep it, oil or no oil. [:P]

[Quillan]

Oh dear I fear some people may have had their fingers burnt "Desire Petroleum, the oil explorer, said further tests showed it did not make an oil discovery in the Falkland Islands, days after it said it believed it had found oil" Shares dropped by 45% today. Thats the second time somebody has claimed to have found oil there only to later say there was an error. Sounds to me somebody somewhere is making a big killing.

[just john]

Are the Falklands in the ''South Sea''[Www]

[pachapapa]

[quote user="NickP"][quote user="pachapapa"][quote user="NickP"][quote user="pachapapa"]

Rafales + Logiciels + Brésil +

[/quote]

Translation please?

[/quote]

http://goo.gl/wHhGx

[/quote]

Still doesn't make sense, all the south american countries together with all the weapons they could buy could still never defeat the British spirit. The Falklands will always be British old boy, we will keep it, oil or no oil. [:P]

[/quote]

I must confess that the afghanis beat the argentinos hands down in the Spirit Handicap Stakes.[:P]

[Quillan]

Having seen a few Argentine 'troops' (I use the word lightly) in Port Stanley after the surrender who were conscripted and had no interest in fighting it seems to me that they didn't want to be there where as the Afghan's don't want us to be there.

[pachapapa]

[quote user="Quillan"]Having seen a few Argentine 'troops' (I use the word lightly) in Port Stanley after the surrender who were conscripted and had no interest in fighting it seems to me that they didn't want to be there where as the Afghan's don't want us to be there.[/quote]

Most were untrained, ill-equipped and suddenly lifted to an island they had never heard of. At the time, I was managing a mine near the Bolivian border; several young local indian lads made the trip to the South Atlantic and spoke well of their treatment by the British Forces.

In confidence they would even admit that they were treated better than by their own officers.

[Quillan]

Funny really because when I went to see them (just curiosity on behalf of us aircrew) they we being fed with steaming jacket potatoes, carrots and tin's of Bully Beef (Corned Beef). The irony of it was, as the NAAFI cook pointed out, the beef in the tins came from Argentina. I have never seen people stuff food down their neck's so fast, nothing to do with quality but more to do with the fact they had not had a decent meal in over a week. A right rum looking lot and I was told that not many looked forward to returning home.

I met a couple of Argentine aircrew as well, their officers were not the brightest of lights on the block. They were told it would have been a pushover which is why they flew Mirage fighters but without air refueling only had about 5 minutes combat capability over the islands. Faced with the slower but very effective Harrier they just turned and went home only to be shot down on the way back. Apparently the quality of servicing was not very good either as many flew with faults and no air to air missiles. The whole affair was said to be very well planned but to be honest judging by what I saw it seemed a very ram-shackled operation which looked more like it was thrown together at the last minute but then I am no expert.