Michael Clapp's experience as a Buccaneer observer led him to examine the assumptions behind forecasts that Britain would lose. Argentine aircraft operating from the mainland had to reserve fuel for the return journey and for high-energy manoeuvres over the target, reducing useful payload and time on station. A single massed strike also required enough trained ground crews and airfields to prepare and launch aircraft in sequence without wasting fuel while formations assembled. The example shows why software built around a total European war and a Soviet alpha strike overstated what a distant opponent could coordinate in practice.
Chapter · 37:55-41:25
The Falklands War exposes model-driven assumptions
Michael Clapp tested predictions of British defeat against Argentine range, fuel, payload, ground-crew, and sortie-generation limits rather than accepting a Soviet-style mass attack as inevitable.