Great Britain had supplied Argentina with modern influence mines, both combination magnetic and pressure activated, and had recently actually serviced them for the Argentinian Navy.

The Royal Navy's mine warfare capacity was purely coastal with 425-long-ton (432 t) Ton-class minesweepers with a range of around 2,300 nmi (2,600 mi; 4,300 km), totally unsuitable for either the distance or the conditions.

On 11 May, the squadron anchored off Ascension Island,[1] and refuelled, although the ships had the capacity to travel the 7,600 nmi (14,100 km) to the operational area and return to the UK on one tank.

They were used there as utility vessels, transporting stores and men, particularly Gurkhas, Scots and Welsh Guards between the ships they had made the journey down on, to the generally smaller craft which would take them to the landing, often in appalling conditions of force 10 katabatic winds and driving snow.

The Argentines had not surrendered, so these ships were then used at night to transport Special Forces, such as SAS and Royal Marines, mainly into West Falkland, where they were inserted covertly by Gemini RHIB.

On one occasion, HMS Pict was dropping troops at Saunders Island with an onshore force 7 and struck a reef just as the Geminis were slipped down the rear trawlnet chute.

On the night of 11 June, HMS Pict was ordered to sweep the entry to Berkeley Sound[1] and mark a cleared channel for a frigate to enter and shell with fire support (NGFS), the Argentinian mountain positions guarding Port Stanley for the final infantry assault.

Whilst in harbour, the MCD specialists in the squadron had set up a Trisponder network, which allows navigational accuracy to 8 m (8.7 yd) in the Port Stanley approaches.