HMS Sheffield (D80) was a British Cold War missile destroyer. The keel was laid in 1970, the launch took place in June 1971, and entry into service with the Royal Navy took place in February 1975. The total length of the ship was 125 meters, total width 14.3 meters, and the full displacement - approx. 4,800 tons. The maximum speed was around 30 knots. The on-board armament consisted of two Sea Dart anti-aircraft missile launchers and a single 114 mm gun. The unit could be based on one in-flight helicopter such as the Westland Lynx.
HMS Sheffield was a type 42 in the Batch 1 version. Destroyers of this type were designed in the late 1960s and were intended to provide anti-aircraft cover for Royal Navy ships. They were also designed to complement the much larger Type 82 destroyers (the so-called Bristol type). No doubt, at the time of launch, HMS Sheffield had good electronic equipment and good seagoing prowess, but it was far from underarmed and had no direct defense armament, which proved to be a fatal mistake. The unit was damaged in the course of the Falklands war in 1982 as a result of an air attack with an Exocet rocket, which it was unable to destroy with the available on-board weapons. Worse still, single rocket damage caused such severe damage that on May 10, 1982 (six days after the attack), HMS Sheffield sank.
The Falklands / Malwiny War Falklands War ) took place from the beginning of April to mid-June 1982. Its cause was the occupation by Argentina, then ruled by a military junta, of the British islands in the South Atlantic - the Falkland Islands. It is assumed that the intervention was carried out to improve the position of the junta in Argentina itself and to improve public mood. It was assumed that the entire operation would be short and successful, and Britain would accept the loss of distant territories. However, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher decided to respond by force to the Argentinean actions and sent significant British forces to the Falkland Islands, the backbone of which - at sea - were two aircraft carriers HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible. Despite the losses suffered by the Royal Navy as a result of the Argentinian air force (including the loss of the destroyer HMS Sheffield), it was able to de facto gain an advantage in the theater of operations and prevent the delivery of major reinforcements to the islands. This gave the British land units (primarily the Royal Marines) an advantage over the Argentinean troops and indirectly led to British victories - primarily Goose Green (late May 1982) and the capture of Port Stanley (first half of June 1982). The war ended in an Argentine defeat, and as a result the British side lost about 1,100 wounded, killed and captured, while the other side - about 13,000 wounded, killed and captured. It was also instrumental in overthrowing the military junta in Argentina and strengthening Margaret Thatcher's political position in the United Kingdom.