How the RN Sea Harriers beat the Argentine Mirage fighters

When I was a boy, several years before the Falklands war, I was told about a tactic called "Viffing" which RAF V/STOL fighters could use to get behind their opponents.

Every contemporary account on the 1982 Falklands War, and every history, suggests that the "Viffing" manouver was used by Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers to defeat the Argentine Mirage fighters.

This film argues that this wasn't the real story at all.

The Fleet Air Arm's Sea harriers certainly defeated their Argentine opponents. They won 100% of dogfights - shooting down 20 Mirages without losing a single Sea Harrier to an Argentine air force.

However, there were a number of reasons for this. One was the capability of the Sidewinder missile and the skill with which the Sea Harriers used them. The hit rate of that missile was the best ever achieved in by an air-to-air missile in any war up to that date: fully 88% of Sidewinders fired by the Fleet Air Arm in the Falklands war hit an Argentine fighter.

This is a fascinating story