The Falklands War reinforces the need for airborne early warning and the reality of missile threats. It also showed that a fleet could survive an air campaign while suffering damage and losing ships. Newspaper predictions about the Russian fleet in 1905 are compared with predictions about Argentine aircraft in 1982. In both examples, adding up weapons encouraged confident claims about which side would be destroyed. Survival and mission achievement can coexist with substantial losses.
Notable Point · 2:53:25-2:55:24
Falklands losses and the limits of counting weapons
Predictions based on weapon counts miss factors that let a fleet survive while still suffering serious losses.