"For the submarine ARA "Santa Fe" (S-21), operations in Malvinas began with the recovery itself, within the framework of "Operation Rosario". This mission began on March 27, 1982, when the unit set sail from Mar del Plata under the command of Lieutenant Commander Horacio Bicain. Two missions were assigned to the ship: the first one was to bring the personnel of the Tactical Divers Group (APBT) closer to the vicinity of Cabo San Felipe, north of Puerto Argentino, and then move out to an assigned patrol area.
During the following days, the S-21 would sail with sea 2/3 and strong southern winds that punished the APBT personnel, while they rehearsed the boat maneuvers from the unit's deck. On the night of March 30, the "Santa Fe" received the order to postpone her missions one day, due to bad weather.
After noon on April 1, the S-21 was left without communications. Without contact with the superiority, the landing was left for the early morning of April 2, on the coasts north of Punta Celebroña, in the vicinity of Kidney Island. In the previous mission, the submarine's radar was out of service and with effort it was replaced three hours later. At 3:35 am, the APBT boats detached from the deck of the "Santa Fe", ending the submarine's mission and beginning the marking of the beach to carry out the recovery of the Malvinas.
The second mission of the "Santa Fe" would be the most dangerous and the final one for the warship. On April 16, she set sail from the Mar del Plata Naval Base with 23 torpedoes and a group of Marines equipped to militarily reinforce the South Georgia Islands. From the day of departure until April 23, the S-21 had to overcome system failures and bad weather. But all these difficulties fell into the background in the previous midnight, when she managed to disembark the infantry personnel on the shores of the Captain Vago cove.
To catch up with the repairs on board, on April 25, Captain Bicain ordered to leave Captain Vago Cove in search of refuge. After an hour of navigation, the S-21 was attacked by British Wessex, Sea Lynx and Wasp helicopters. It is the latter, the one that launched an AS-12 missile that hit the sail of the Argentine submarine, wounding Corporal Segundo Alberto Macías, who repelled the attack from the sail with his FAL…"
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"…It was so deteriorated that its depth could not be varied; It only had two possible positions, on the surface or submerged at a fixed elevation. And operating the torpedo tubes carried the risk of an explosion. In front of him, ships and submarines designed to fight in the Third World War…."
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"The ARA Santa Fe submarine, built in the United States at the end of World War II, was incorporated by the Argentine Navy in 1971. A decade later, on December 21, 1981, the then Lieutenant Commander, Horacio Bicain, aged 38, assumed his command.
In dialogue with La Prensa, today's Frigate Captain (R) recalls that when he took over, the submarine had material restrictions and was very materially degraded. "Later I found out," explains Bicain, "that the Navy's plans were to remove him from service in August 1982."…"
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"…The ARA Santa Fe also carried the Mk. 37 Americans, which she could not use either. These self-guided (i.e. programmable and autonomous) torpedoes had entered in service in 1956, primarily as a weapon to deal with the growing threat from the Soviet submarines. By that time, it was estimated that the Mk. 37 had a near-absolute hit probability against such targets, which spoke of its virtuous design. and its great reliability. In any case, it must be remembered that these were slow and noisy soviets submarines. Those torpedoes then, had limitations to face submarines or modern warships, which could escape
of him easily…."
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Armand
tries out the expansion roads set.
