Minister claims Falkland Island defences must be beefed up

DEFENCE Secretary Michael Fallon will announce to the House of Commons this week that British defences on the Falkland Islands are to be reinforced, in light of a Ministry of Defence report that found an attack on the islands was now more likely. 

The government insisted the threat to the Falklands “has not gone away,” and suggested that to try and retake the islands if they were invaded would be very difficult.

At the moment, 1,200 troops are based on the islands, as well as a small fleet of Sea King helicopters and RAF Typhoon jets. But tensions with Argentina have been revived, and speculation emerged in December that Russia had agreed to supply fighter jets to Argentina in return for beef and wheat to get around European sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine issue.

Thus, the government minister insists, defence measures on the Falkland Islands must be enhanced with more modern equipment and technology. He told Sky news: “We’re modernising what we’re doing there and I’m going to talk about the various capabilities and equipment we have there.

“I can’t give you too much detail of that because I can’t even tell Parliament all the details of how we defend the Falklands, but what I can assure you is that we’re absolutely committed to defending the Falklands.”