A British warship has fired 120 live rounds off the coast of the Falkland Islands as part of a military exercise as tensions with Argentina over the territory continue to grow. HMS Medway, a patrol vessel permanently based in the South Atlantic to guard the island, fired the rounds from its 30mm automatic small calibre gun as part of a drill designed to ensure the ship is ready for front-line operations on Monday.
The ship’s crew wrote in a post on X: “120 rounds downrange. We took the opportunity for further routine training and put our 30mm Automatic Small Calibre Gun through its paces again. Practice = Precision.” It follows a series of joint manouevres from British soldiers and locally-trained reservists practicing recapturing the Falklands as Argentina continues to challenge the archipelago’s sovereignty.
Javier Milei, president of Argentina, signalled that he was willing to “move quickly” to “recover” the islands last month, claiming they are “under illegal foreign occupation” by the UK. The Falklands have long been a source of diplomatic tension between the two countries, which fought a war for sovereignty after Argentina invaded the British territory in 1982.
The Falklands War led to 255 British service deaths in just over 70 days, alongside the deaths of 655 Argentinians and three Falkland Islanders. Mr Milei has reignited the sovereignty debate and heightened tensions with the UK since coming to power in 2023.
Falkland Islanders previously voted overwhelmingly to remain a British Overseas Territory but Mr Milei has argued that the principle of self-determination does not apply “since the population was implanted by the occupying power on a territory whose sovereignty is in dispute”.
The Argentinian president made the row over the Falklands the centrepiece of his speech to the United Nations (UN) general assembley last month, declaring his country’s claim to the archipelago “a national cause”. He argued that the UN had chosen “to look the other way”, leaving him no choice but to “take matters into our own hands” through legal and economic action.
Mr Milei’s government imposed sanctions on people and firms involved in oil exploration around the Falklands in early September, saying it would file a criminal complaint against oil company Navitas Patroleum over its operations around the islands. It has also introduced a new security bill enabling it to take tougher action and expand the military’s role in protecting critical infrastructure.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said the UK “will stand firm in the face of any threats” to the territory and the British UN delegation also responded strongly to the speech, expressing “no doubt” about its sovereignty over the archipelago. A statement said efforts by Argentina to deny the fundamental human right of self-determination “is not the behaviour we expect of a democracy”.
It added: “Ongoing efforts to obstruct and harass international companies involved in Falkland Islands hydrocarbons, and indeed other Falkland Islands industries, are a wholly unacceptable attempt to exercise extra-territorial jurisdiction, and have no justification whatsoever in international law.”
