ARA Patagonia (B-1)

ARA Patagonia (ex-Durance (A629)) during UNITAS manoeuvres
History
France
Name:	Durance
Namesake:	Durance
Builder:	Brest Arsenal, Brest
Laid down:	12 December 1973
Launched:	6 September 1975
Commissioned:	1 December 1976
Fate:	Sold to Argentina
Argentina
Name:	Patagonia
Namesake:	Patagonia
Acquired:	12 July 1999
Commissioned:	9 July 2000
Status:	In active service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Durance-class tanker
Displacement:	7,600 tonnes (empty) 17,800 tonnes (full load)
Length:	157.2 m (516 ft)
Beam:	21.2 m (70 ft)
Draught:	8.65 m (28.4 ft) (average) 10.8 m (35 ft) (full load)
Propulsion:	2 × Pielstick 16 PC2-5 V 400 diesel engines, two shafts (14,710 kW)
Speed:	19 knots (35 km/h)
Range:	9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Boats & landing craft carried:	1 LCVP 1 9-metre boat 2 rigid-hulled inflatable boats
Complement:	8 officers 62 non-commissioned officers 89 sailors
Sensors and processing systems:	2 DRBN 34 radars
Armament:	2 × Bofors 40 mm guns 4 × 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns 2 × RBS 70 missile plataform
Aviation facilities:	UH-3H Sea King helicopter picture

ARA Patagonia (B-1) is a multi-product replenishment oiler of the Durance class in service in the Argentine Navy. She was the lead ship of her class serving in the French Navy as Durance (A629) from 1977 to 1999.

She is capable of supplying other ships with both RAS (Replenishment at Sea) and VERTREP (VERTical REPlenishment) methods.

Durance was launched on 6 September 1975 at Brest, France as a Pétrolier Revitailleur d´Escadre (PRE) entering service on 12 April 1977. She was decommissioned on 5 December 1997 and sold to the Argentine Navy on 12 July 1999.

Renamed ARA Patagonia she arrived at Puerto Belgrano on 29 August 1999 where she spent one year in drydock receiving an overhaul of her engines and hull. She was officially commissioned with the pennant number B-1 (LPGA) into the Amphibious and Logistic Naval Command (COAL) of the fleet on 9 July 2000 and made her first voyage on the following month.

Since then she has participated in numerous exercises and operations within the fleet and foreign navies including Pre-Unitas, UNITAS ^picture, Gringo-Gaucho, Atlasur, PASSEX, Gosth, and Fraterno with the United States, Chile, Brazil and Spain among others.