Weapon was seen as a fatal threat to UK’s defence of the Falkland Islands – and scored a direct hit on the English languageThe British public became fascinated by the Exocet missile after one sunk HMS Sheffield shortly after the outbreak of the Falklands war in 1982. One Exocet hit and sank a requisitioned container ship, the Atlantic Conveyor, with the loss of 12 lives. It is possible that the missile had been deflected from the Royal Navy’s main aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes, after it fired chaff clouds. A land-launched Exocet also struck the destroyer HMS Glamorgan. The missile skidded along the ship’s deck and exploded, killing 14 people, but the ship survived.

Source: The Guardian October 15, 2017 21:00 UTC