Argentina once again complained about British Royal Air Force (RAF) flights to the Falklands archipelago (Malvinas) and with stopovers at Brazilian airports. Daniel Scioli, Argentina's ambassador to Brazil, presented a diplomatic note on the issue.
In January 2022, seven RAF aircraft flights were recorded with stops in Brazil in São Paulo, Porto Alegre, Recife and Rio de Janeiro with C-17 Globemaster III, Voyager (DO NOT MRTT) and C-130 Hercules. In the case of the C-17, the aircraft was in Rio Grande do Sul on three consecutive days, making stopovers at Salgado Filho International Airport.
According to the portal MercoPress, Argentina is concerned about the age of RAF planes in Brazil, which has the archipelago – a source of disputes between London and Buenos Aires – as its final destination. In the note, Argentina claims that the flights show that Brazil accepts the British military presence in the region, going against the grain of other Mercosur .
“The Argentine government sees with surprise and concern that during the month of January 2022 seven military flights of these characteristics were carried out”, says the document sent to Itamaraty.
“These flights constitute a further manifestation of the UK’s illegitimate military presence in the South Atlantic, which has been described by Mercosur Member States and associates as contrary to the regional policy of attachment to the search for a peaceful solution to the sovereignty dispute.”, adds the text of the diplomat.
“The political purpose pursued by the supposed 'stops' of British military aircraft in countries of the region is skipped, since their continuity in time could be publicized as a kind of Brazilian acceptance of the presence of a military base in the South Atlantic”, says another excerpt from the note delivered to Pedro Miguel Costa e Silva, Secretary of Bilateral and Regional Negotiations for the Americas of Brazil.
Argentina “is grateful that the Brazilian government seeks to restrict the granting of licenses for British military aircraft to or from the Malvinas Islands to strictly humanitarian cases only”, ends the diplomatic note.
Buenos Aires does not criticize RAF humanitarian flights, which take place in case of rescue, calamity and other situations where lives are at risk. However, he points out that the January flights do not have any humanitarian character, being only military displacements.
The United Kingdom has maintained troops in the Flaklands since the end of hostilities in 1982, with emphasis on Mount Pleasant air base, which has four Eurofighter Typhoon fighters from 1345 Flight, and Voyager and A400 aircraft from 1312 Flight. The units are subordinate to the 905th Expeditionary Wing. Before the war there was only one Royal Fusiliers detachment.
During the conflicts, Brazil even supplied AT-26 Xavante and EMB-111 Bandeirulha planes to Argentina, which generated complaints from England. On June 03, 1982, a British Avro Vulcan bomber was intercepted by F-5 fighters of the Brazilian Air Force after invading Brazilian airspace due to an in-flight emergency. The aircraft landed in Rio de Janeiro, where it stayed until the end of the war.
In 2017, the Porto Alegre newspaper Gaucho ZH exposed the malaise between Brazil and Argentina due to the stoppages of British planes in the country. At the time, opposition deputy Guillermo Carmona denounced the use of Brazilian airports on at least six flights in 2016.
A source from the Argentine Government, speaking to the newspaper The nation, said that “allowing this frequency of flights means accepting a military base in the region as something normal”. O Merco Press says that the United Kingdom justifies the increase in the number of flights by the start of the Antarctic campaign.
At the same time that Argentina complains about scales, the UK Ministry of Defense invests in its forces present in the Falklands.
According to the portal Shephard media, the ministry contracted the company Aquila to its air defenses and provide surveillance and communication services in the southwest of England and in the Malvinas Islands.
Aquila – which already provides air defense services at test ranges in the Shetland Islands and the Outer Hebrides – will work on the maintenance of the Type 101 and 102 radar and communications systems, installed in the South Atlantic islands. In the new partnership, known as Project Samson, the company extends its beyond the UK.
