Why Atlantic Conveyor stayed with the carrier group

Did Royal Navy procedures unnecessarily expose Atlantic Conveyor during the Falklands War?

No: it had to operate with the carrier group so its helicopters could be led into the operation, although its cargo and limited damage-control capacity made the loss especially severe.

Atlantic Conveyor could not simply remain beyond Argentine air range. Its aircraft had range on paper but lacked the over-water navigation support to fly independently into the landing area, so Royal Navy Sea Kings had to lead them from the carrier group. British logistics ships normally waited in that defended area and moved toward San Carlos at night, minimizing time between protected zones. Atlantic Conveyor therefore had a protection scheme, even though an Exocet penetrated it. Its fuel, munitions, aircraft stores, Chinook spares, and limited merchant-ship firefighting capacity made the vessel a particularly hazardous concentration of logistics.