An extension result for $(LB)$-spaces and the surjectivity of tensorized mappings

We study an extension problem for continuous linear maps in the setting of $(LB)$-spaces. More precisely, we characterize the pairs $(E,Z)$, where $E$ is a locally complete space with a fundamental sequence of bounded sets and $Z$ is an $(LB)$-space, such that for every exact sequence of $(LB)$-spaces $$ 0 \rightarrow X \xrightarrow{\iota} Y \rightarrow Z \rightarrow 0$$ the map $$ L(Y,E) \to L(X, E), ~ T \mapsto T \circ \iota $$ is surjective, meaning that each continuous linear map $X \to E$ can be extended to a continuous linear map $Y \to E$ via $\iota$, under some mild conditions on $E$ or $Z$ (e.g. one of them is nuclear). We use our extension result to obtain sufficient conditions for the surjectivity of tensorized maps between Fréchet-Schwartz spaces. As an application of the latter, we study vector-valued Eidelheit type problems. Our work is inspired by and extends results of Vogt [24].