There was a very real problem – but the whole reason that people were up in arms about the selection of the Super Etendard was that the problem was one which arose when the Jaguar had lost an engine. As a single-engined aircraft, the Super Etendard’s capabilities with an engine out were even less impressive.

Yeah, but assuming that both engines are equally reliable, a twin-engine aircraft actually has higher odds of suffering an engine failure on any given sortie than a single-engine aircraft. If it can’t land safely on one engine, the twin is actually going to suffer higher losses due to engine failure.