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24was six) and after the two sinkings it was assumed that two were stillavailable. What was not appreciated was the enemy%u2019s ability to fire themfrom the land and HMS Glamorgan was badly damaged by a lorrylaunched Exocet while engaged on a night gun bombardment of shorefacilities.When the bridgehead was established at San Carlos, and the forceswent ashore, there was anxiety at Northwood over the apparent delay inmoving the troops out of the base area and advancing to the east of theisland. But they did move and with air support, which you will hearabout later, defeated the Argentines.After the Falklands had been recaptured there was still a requirementto support the islands with most of the aircraft from Ascension. Inparticular the Hercules, supported by AAR Victors and AAR Hercules,transported supplies both before and after the airfield at Stanley wasuseable.At Northwood we remained busy until RAF Stanley was up andrunning with a runway that could be used by aircraft that could deal withany attack the Argentines might be tempted to launch against theFalklands.At the end of the day we concluded that:a. Without Victor AAR the RAF would not have been able tosupport the Task Group all the way to the Falklands.b. The extraordinary measures taken to provide all long range aircraftwith an AAR capability was the key to success.c. Similarly, the rapid provision of armaments to meet new threatsenhanced the effectiveness of several aircraft types.And, finally, that the quality of our people was a major contributor tothe success of this operation in a new environment which proved theimportance of the flexibility of air power.From my perspective, twenty-one years later, the Falklandsexperiences have been well learned and have resulted in today%u2019sorganisation and equipment. Is it a coincidence that today%u2019s PJHQ is atNorthwood?