Actually the Navy were well aware of the “Sea Skimming missiles” of which Exocet was just one example and how inadequate Sea Dart was.
Broadsword type 22 with Sea Wolf could handle the subsonic Exocets, but that was the only vessel present with Sea Wolf.
Afterwards CIWS “Goalkeeper” (radar controlled rotary cannons) were retrofitted, but the fact is, if the MOD had been given the budget beforehand, less ships would have been sunk.
Indeed many more would have been sunk if all the bomb hits made by the Argentine pilots had exploded. Luckily most of their bombs had not been designed for the daring low level strikes that they made on the British ships, and also, those pilots nearly always deliberately attacked warships.
Had they gone for the transports, there would have been no liberation. Chivalry was the Argentine’s downfall.
