Why Sea Cat remained in service during the Falklands War

Why was Sea Cat still being used in 1982?

It was obsolete, but the fleet had not received enough funding to replace it broadly with Sea Wolf before the war.

Sea Cat had become ineffective against the threats faced in the Falklands. Funding had failed to provide Sea Wolf across enough ships, leaving the older system in service despite recognition of its limits. Obsolescence at the point of combat reflected the scale and timing of fleet modernization as much as the missile's original design. The exchange connects a poor wartime weapon outcome to earlier procurement depth.