Word: etendards
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...brilliant, late-summer sky above the eastern Mediterranean, F-14 jet fighters from the U.S. carrier Eisenhower roared over Beirut and headed toward the mountains of Lebanon. Only a few hours earlier, Super Etendard strike fighters from the French aircraft carrier Foch had conducted similar exercises. Officially, both the American and French warplanes were on reconnaissance flights. In reality, they were sounding a warning to Druze militiamen in the Chouf Mountains of Lebanon: from that day forward, the planes could be ordered to strike and destroy any artillery that continued to fire at troops of the four-country multinational force...
...region has been rife with reports that France, which has already provided more than $4 billion worth of arms to Iraq, may soon supply it with Super Etendard jet fighters equipped with the kind of air-to-surface Exocet missiles that Argentina used against Britain in last year's Falklands war. A likely target for Saddam Hussein: Iran's major oil outlet at Kharg island in the Persian Gulf. The very idea provoked a quick Iranian counterthreat. If France or any other nation intervened in the war by supplying such weapons, or if Iraq seriously damaged the facilities...
...Coventry, helped by other vessels, shot down four of the attackers but was hit and sunk by later sorties. Then the 14,946-ton Atlantic Conveyor, a merchant ship hired for the task force, was attacked by two of Argentina's deadliest type of warplane: the French-built Super-Etendard fighters that carry the sea-skimming Exocet missile. The aircraft fired their weapons from a distance of about 28 miles. One missed the Conveyor; the other struck home. Though the vessel stayed afloat, the crew abandoned ship. Loss of the Conveyor was particularly painful for the British: the ship...
...British fleet as "the shiny Sheff," was on radar patrol about 70 miles from the Falklands. Its main duty was to protect the vulnerable aircraft carrier Hermes from air attack. Instead, the destroyer fell victim. At least two, and possibly three, French-built fighters, including at least one Super-Etendard fighter-bomber, were about 550 miles from a mainland airbase, presumably at Rio Gallegos, and nearing the limit of their combat range when the radar on a Super-Etendard locked in on the Sheffield. About 20 miles from the ship, two of the pilots fired one Exocet each and then...
...French-built Super-Etendard Argentine fighter-bombers probably approached the British fleet flying at around 575 m.p.h. H.M.S. Sheffield 's radar would in all likelihood have picked them up only as they climbed to identify their target and launch their Exocet air-to-sea missiles. From that moment, the attack that crippled the British destroyer some four minutes later was no longer a matter of daring and courage. It had become a 20th century battle of microchips and computers, of decisions and reactions far too fast for the human brain to make. Says a weapons expert for Jane...