A question for our Argentine contributors. Was the arrestor gear deployed and tested during April? I note that the claims come from Argentine sources. Also the claim of the cargo vessel carrying the equipment to be used in the runway extension?
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Another common misconception is that the Argentine forces made no attempt to use the airfield at Port Stanley as a base for high-performance jets. In early April the Argentine Naval Aviation installed arrestor gear on the runway to enable short landings, and A-4Q Skyhawks of 3 Escuadrilla and S-2 Trackers (2-AS-22, 2-AS-25) deployed to the airfield performing several reconnaissance missions until April 13 when they were redeployed to the continent to embark on the Veinticinco de Mayo.
After the carrier returned to port, and due to the continuous naval bombardment of Stanley, the aircraft operated from Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego and Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz respectively [43][44] Engineers of the Argentine Air Force had added additional steel matting to extend the parking area for the Pucaras and Aermacchis that used the airfield but the main equipment to extend the runway was still on the ELMA cargo ship Cordoba which could not cross to the island due to the British submarine threat [45]