British nuclear weapons and the Falklands War information
The British government did not seriously consider using its nuclear weapons during the 1982 Falklands War. Prior to the war Britain had ratified the Treaty of Tlatelolco which established a nuclear-weapon-free zone across Latin America and had given a commitment in the United Nations to not use these weapons against non-nuclear powers such as Argentina. While the British War Cabinet never contemplated the use of nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher may have done so as a contingency for if the had war gone badly.
Four of the British Royal Navy warships which were sent to the South Atlantic following the invasion of the Falklands initially carried nuclear depth bombs as part of their standard armament. The War Cabinet decided on 8 April 1982 to have these weapons removed before the ships departed. It had to reluctantly reverse this decision three days later due to the impracticality of rapidly offloading the depth bombs. On 28 May the War Cabinet decided that the weapons should be returned to the UK and many of them were shipped back before the end of the conflict. The presence of nuclear depth bombs in the naval task force was reported by journalists soon after the end of the war but not confirmed by the British government until 2003.
It has separately been alleged that a British ballistic missile submarine was sent to the South Atlantic to potentially attack Argentina. This has been denied by senior British government figures as well as the commander of the submarine in question. Historians have found no evidence of such a deployment.
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