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64Twin Shrike installation on a Vulcan.difficult to assess just how much effect we had, given that the crews hadreceived only the barest training and that the Vulcan had relatively littleloiter time over the islands, this was scarcely surprising.So were the raids worth it? I have absolutely no doubt that they were,especially the first one, which sent a very stark message to Argentina %u2013 ifwe could reach the Falklands, then we could reach Buenos Aires. As aresult they moved a number of their Mirage fighters north to protect thecapital which significantly reduced their ability to escort offensivemissions against the Task Force. Had they been able to do so it wouldhave made the work of our Sea Harriers far more difficult. No attemptwas ever made to operate A-4s from the damaged Port Stanley runway,nor was any attempt made to lengthen it. The occasional transportaircraft that did use the airfield was hardly relevant to the end result.Enormous praise is due to the crews who flew very long and, as youhave seen, extremely complicated sorties, requiring skills that had onlyvery recently been acquired. The overtasked Victor crews did amagnificent job, delivering fuel, not only at long distance, but often inpoor weather conditions at (and sometime actually beyond) the extremelimit of their operating range. So, for all of these reasons, I believe that,expensive though they were, the BLACK BUCK operations delivered acrucial message and a message that was clearly understood in Argentina.They were, therefore, an essential undertaking and they did play theirpart in supporting the operations of the Task Force.