In April 1982 Britain sent a force of more than 120 ships to retake the Falkland Islands: two carriers, more than a dozen destroyers and frigates, and the auxiliaries and requisitioned merchantmen to keep them going. It managed this without suspending any of its other commitments around the world. The operation took seventy-four days and cost 255 British and 649 Argentine lives, and the whole planet saw that the United Kingdom could still project military power across the Atlantic.