Operation Mikado

Operation Mikado
Part of Falklands War
Argentine Navy Dassault-Breguet Super Étendard
Type	Airborne operation
Location	Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina
Planned	May 1982
Planned by	Brigadier Peter de la Billière
Target	Super Étendard squadron of the Argentine Navy
Executed by	Special Air Service
Outcome	Operation cancelled

Operation Mikado was the code name of a military plan by the United Kingdom to use Special Air Service troops to attack the home base of Argentina's five Etendard strike fighters at Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego during the 1982 Falklands War.^[1] The man in charge of the planning was Brigadier Peter de la Billière,^[2] then director of the SAS and SBS Group.

The aim of the operation was to destroy the three remaining Exocet missiles which Argentina still had in their power and the aircraft that carried them, and to kill the pilots in their quarters. To achieve this, Brigadier Peter de la Billière proposed an operation similar to Operation Entebbe,^[3] which consisted of landing approximately 55 SAS in two Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft directly on the runway at Rio Grande.^[2]

According to the plan, the C-130 would be kept on the tarmac with the engines running while the 55 men of B Squadron SAS performed their mission. If the C-130 survived then they would head for the Chilean air base at Punta Arenas. If not, the surviving members of the SAS Squadron and aircrew would travel to the Chilean border, about 50 miles away.^[2]

Prelude

A preliminary reconnaissance mission on Río Grande, code-named "Operation Plum Duff", was launched from HMS Invincible on 16 May, as a prelude to the attack. The operation consisted of transporting a small SAS team to mainland Argentina on a stripped down Royal Navy Westland Sea King Mark IV, who would then march to the Rio Grande air base and proceed to set up an observation post to collect intelligence on the base's defenses.^[3]

As the mission required that the Sea King helicopter travelled a distance close to its operation range, this meant that it would be a one-way mission. Therefore, the aircrew mission consisted of dropping the SAS team on Argentina's shore, head to Chile and dispose of the aircraft, which was achieved by setting fire to the helicopter.^[3]

According to Argentine sources, on the night of 17/18 May,^[4] the helicopter was tracked by the radar of the destroyer ARA Bouchard who sent a message to her sister ship ARA Piedrabuena, patrolling on the north, and then to the air base of Río Grande.^[5] Members of the Argentine 24th Regiment of Infantry claimed in 2007 that they hit the helicopter with small arms fire amid thick fog south of Rio Gallegos.^[6] Meanwhile, the SAS reconnaissance mission was eventually cancelled.^[3]

The lack of on-site intelligence meant that the British forces didn't have a clear idea of how Rio Grande was defended, nor any guarantees that the Super Etendards or the Exocets would even be there when the operation took place. The British forces also had no information on how the base was organized, which meant they had no idea where the Exocets were stored or even where the pilot's mess was located.^[3]

By this time, Operation Mikado, which was already seen by experienced SAS members to be a suicide mission, was considered to be impossible to pull off, due to the loss of the element of surprise and due to British intelligence discovering that the Argentines enjoyed far better radar coverage than initially expected.^[2] As a consequence, the airborne assault plan attracted considerable hostility from some members of the SAS, which ultimately lead to one sergeant submitting his resignation shortly before the team was due to fly out to Ascension and to the squadron's commander being relieved and replaced by the regiment's second-in-command.^[2]

Ultimately, the Thatcher administration acknowledged that there was a strong likelihood that the operation would fail. As such a failure would be a propaganda disaster for the British forces, this led to the decision to scrap Operation Mikado.^[3] As an alternative, a plan was devised to infiltrate the SAS into Argentina with the help of the Royal Navy submarine HMS Onyx.^[2] The plan consisted of dropping the SAS operatives several miles offshore at night for them to make their way to the coast aboard rubber inflatables.^[2] The Argentine Navy claims that the Bouchard had shelled a submarine and a number of inflatable boats while on patrol two miles off Rio Grande, at the position 53°43′38.04″S 67°42′0″W / 53.7272333°S 67.7°W / -53.7272333; -67.7, on the evening of 16 May 1982.^[4]

The Rio Grande area would be defended by four battalions of Marine Infantry of the Argentine Marine Corps of the Argentine Navy, some of whose officers were trained in the UK by the SBS years earlier.^[7]

After the war, Argentine marine commanders admitted that they were waiting for some kind of landing by SAS forces but never expected a Hercules to land directly on their runways, although they would have pursued British forces even into Chilean territory in case of attack.^[8]

References

1. ^ The SAS VS The Exocet from www.eliteukforces.info
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} "SAS 'suicide mission' to wipe out Exocets". The Daily Telegraph. 2002-03-08. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/argentina/1387091/SAS-suicide-mission-to-wipe-out-Exocets.html. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "The SAS vS the Exocet". http://www.eliteukforces.info/articles/sas-versus-exocets.php. Retrieved 2011-12-16. 
4. ^ ^{a b} El Bouchard y el Fracaso de la Operación Británica Mikado by Eugenio L. Facchin y José L. Speroni (Spanish)
5. ^ "Mikado: la operación que no fue" Clarín newspaper, 31 March 1996 (Spanish)
6. ^ La compañía fantasma que le disparó al misterioso Sea King Clarín newspaper, 21 May 2007 (Spanish)
7. ^ Middlebrook, Martin (1989), The Fight For The Malvinas: The Argentine Forces In The Falklands War, Viking, p. 75, ISBN 0-14-010767-3 
8. ^ La Infantería de Marina de la Armada Argentina en el Conflicto del Atlántico Sur, ISBN 987-43-3641-2. (Spanish)

Coordinates: 53°46′39″S 67°45′12″W / 53.7775°S 67.75333°W / -53.7775; -67.75333