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British Warships Carried Nuclear Weapons During Falkland Islands War
British warships carried nuclear weapons during the 1982 British-Argentine war over the Falkland Islands, the British Defense Ministry said Saturday (see GSN, Oct. 14). The ships carried Type WE177 nuclear depth charges, which could have been launched from battleships or fighter aircraft, according to the Australian Herald Sun. While the ministry did not disclose the number of nuclear weapons or ships carrying them, a ministry spokesman said that none of the weapons had entered Argentine or Falkland waters. The WE177 weapons were later scrapped in 1992 (David Williams, Herald Sun, Dec. 7). Yesterday, a British Foreign Office spokesman said nuclear weapons carried by British ships were “offloaded” before they reached the South Atlantic to ensure British compliance with the Treaty of Tlatelolco, which created a nuclear weapon-free zone in Latin America and the Caribbean (see GSN, Nov. 6). “There were no nuclear weapons in Argentinian waters and there were no nuclear weapons around the Falklands,” the spokesman said (London Guardian, Dec. 8). Argentina has asked the United Kingdom to confirm that none of the British ships sunk during the war were carrying nuclear weapons, according to Reuters. In addition, Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has demanded an apology for the “regrettable and monstrous” act of arming British ships with nuclear weapons during the war over the islands, called the Falklands in the United Kingdom and named Malvinas in Argentina. “What Argentina needs is for (Britain) to have the decency to make a necessary apology,” Kirchner said. “Britain should never have usurped sovereignty over the Malvinas. ... I am simply demanding the rights of Argentines and I hope (Prime Minister) Tony Blair understands that and is listening,” he added (Reuters/CNN.com, Dec. 7). The British Defense Ministry Saturday denied that the destroyer HMS Sheffield, which was sunk during the war, had carried nuclear weapons. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in 1991 that the destroyer had been carrying a nuclear weapon when it was sunk, according to the Herald Sun. After the ship went down, a salvage mission was sent to retrieve “sensitive” equipment, and the United Kingdom neither confirmed nor denied that the ship carried nuclear weapons (Williams, Herald Sun).
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