The RAF operated 16 squadrons of Phantom II's but I doubt if they would have been in service all at the same time.
The Fleet Air Arm also operated the type with 3 squadrons.
When Maggie Thatcher waved her handbag at Galtieri we all thought it would be a pushover - including me. But the Argies surprised us and we took heavy losses. We went there on a shoestring and it nearly didn't come off.
The Harrier's operations were crucial but this excellent aircraft couldn't do what the Phantom could. And why wasn't the Phantom there? Because the myopic cretin-ridden Labour government of the day had payed off the Ark Royal in 1978 and disbanded the squadrons' Phantoms which went to the RAF. Granted, they didn't know what was coming but had it been possible, had it been left to them, we would have ended up with a rowing boat and some daft bugger with an air rifle.
With a long range, supersonic, all-weather fighter operating between the Falklands and the Argentine mainland it is doubtful if a single Argie Etendard (or any other type) would have got anywhere near RN units.
It's the same old familiar story; political interference with military efficiency by defence budget adventurism. Followed by our chaps having to work miracles when dropped in the sh*t by the half-soaked politicos who run our lives.
Sorry - but it just winds me up.
This is a FAA Phantom of 892 Squadron which could/should have been there.
'Find your enemy and shoot him down - everything else is unimportant.'
