RFA Argus (A135)
RFA Argus off the coast of Devonport in 2007.
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | RFA Argus |
| Namesake: | HMS Argus |
| Launched: | 1981 |
| Acquired: | February 1982 by the MOD |
| Commissioned: | 1 June 1988 |
| Identification: |
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| Motto: | Occuli Omnium (Eyes Of All) |
| Honours and awards: |
As the MV Contender Bezant: Falkland Islands 1982. |
| Status: | in active service |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Aviation training / Casualty receiving ship |
| Displacement: | 28,081 tonnes |
| Length: | 175.1 m (574 ft 6 in) |
| Beam: | 30.4 m (99 ft 9 in) |
| Draught: | 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Lindholmen Pielstick 18 PC2.5V diesels, twin propellers; bow-thruster |
| Speed: | 18 knots (33 km/h) |
| Complement: |
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| Sensors and processing systems: |
Kelvin Hughes Ltd SharpEye navigation radar |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: | Three spots for Westland Sea Kings, CH47 Chinooks, Westland Merlins, WAH-64 Apache or Westland Lynx |
| Aviation facilities: | 1 Aircraft lift from Flight Deck to 4-Deck number 2 hangar, 4x hangars |
RFA Argus is a ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary operated by the MoD under the Blue Ensign. Italian-built, Argus was formerly the container ship MV Contender Bezant. The ship was requisitioned in 1982 for service in the Falklands War and purchased outright in 1984 for use as an Aviation Training Ship, replacing RFA Engadine. In 1991, during the Gulf War, she was fitted with an extensive and fully functional hospital to assume the additional role of Primary Casualty Receiving Ship. In 2009, the PCRS role became the ship's primary function. Argus is set to go out of service in 2024.
As the ship is armed, the Geneva Convention prevents her from being officially classified as a hospital ship.
After a four-year conversion at Harland and Wolff in Belfast the ship entered RFA service in 1988. Having been initially designed as a container ship, she would have been unstable when unloaded, making her motion at sea uncomfortable or even dangerous. Therefore, her superstructure is deliberately heavily built (weighing some 800 tons), and she has 1,800 tons of concrete ballast carried in former hatch covers, which have been inverted to form tray-like structures.
Being a former container ship, Argus does not have a traditional aircraft carrier layout - the ship's superstructure is located forward, with a long flight deck aft. The ship has a small secondary superstructure approximately two-thirds of the way down the flight deck, containing the ship's exhaust funnel. This is used by small helicopters to simulate landing on the flight deck of a destroyer or frigate.
For the 1991 Gulf War Argus was fitted with a fully functional hospital, which has since been modified and extensively augmented with specialist equipment, providing 70 beds. The ship is equipped with an intensive-care unit, and can provide medical x-ray and CT-scan services. Casualties can be quickly transferred from the deck directly into the assessment area. In recent years the ship's role as a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship has been considered her primary role rather than its aviation training duties.
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Wikipedia