Falklands improvisation exposed a Cold War repair gap

The long Falklands deployment forced Britain to create quasi-maintenance ships, including RFA Diligence, because the fleet operated far from home dockyards. That raises the question of why a navy preparing for Soviet war did not maintain the same capability in advance. Likely fighting around the GIUK gap and northern Norway would have placed ships near Iceland, Greenland, and Norway, where useful ports existed but were limited in number. Concentrating support in those ports would also make sustainment predictable and vulnerable. Purpose-built repair ships could have dispersed the fleet and made forward deployment easier.