Britain to send n-sub on Falklands patrol

Argentina Star (IANS) Saturday 4th February, 2012

Britain will send a nuclear submarine to the South Atlantic to protect the Falkland Islands from the threat of Argentine military action, Daily Mail reported Saturday.

Prime Minister David Cameron has personally approved plans for one of the Navy's most sophisticated Trafalgar-class submarines to sail to the region.

Significantly, the heavily-armed vessel is set to be in the islands' waters by April - the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1982 war.

It will provide an outer cordon of unseen protection for the Falklands.

The move will re-open wounds over the Argentine flagship General Belgrano, which was controversially sunk by a British submarine during the two-month conflict with the loss of 323 sailors.

The deployment is certain to infuriate the Argentine government and lead to further deterioration in the already fraught relations between Britain and Buenos Aires, the Mail said.

Tensions between the two countries have increased dramatically after months of sabre-rattling there over sovereignty of the disputed territory, which has been British since the 1830s.

Protesters who have vowed to target a different British business every week, threw paint bombs at the HSBC branch in Buenos Aires Friday.

On Thursday, a Union Jack flag was burned outside the British embassy in the capital.

On Friday, the defence ministry refused to discuss the move of one of the Navy's most lethal assets to the South Atlantic. "We don't comment on submarine deployments for operational security," a spokesman said.