The 1982 Falklands naval campaign was one of the very few large-scale naval actions since the end of World War II. In response to the Argentine invasion of the Falklands/Malvinas islands in the South Atlantic, the U.K. Royal Navy sortied to retake the islands and restore the Union Jack. The war demonstrated the lethality of sea-skimming cruise missiles to warships, the usefulness of Harrier short-takeoff/vertical landing fighters, the deployment speed of nuclear-powered submarines and the value of shipboard surface-to-air missiles. The conflict also showed the effectiveness of low-level visual attacks by vintage jets, the difficulty of antisubmarine search and the lethality of the lack of early warning aircraft.
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