RFA Diligence (A132)
RFA Diligence acting as a target ship during a boarding exercise in 2011
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | RFA Diligence |
| Builder: | Öresundsvarvet AB, Landskrona, Sweden |
| Launched: | January 1981 |
| Acquired: | October 1983 |
| Commissioned: | 12 March 1984 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: A132 |
| Fate: | Laid up |
| Status: | Currently for sale |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 10,595 tonnes (10,428 long tons) |
| Length: | 112 m (367 ft 5 in) |
| Beam: | 20.5 m (67 ft 3 in) |
| Draught: | 6.8 m (22 ft 4 in) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) |
| Troops: | up to 55 personnel |
| Complement: | 54 RFA and up to 147 RN |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
Kelvin Hughes Ltd SharpEye navigation radar |
| Armament: |
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| Aviation facilities: | Helicopter deck up to CH-47 Chinook size |
RFA Diligence is a forward repair ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Launched in 1981 as a support ship for North Sea oil rigs, she was chartered by the British government to support naval activities during the 1982 Falklands War and was later bought outright as a fleet maintenance vessel. She gave assistance to the damaged USS Tripoli and Princeton in the 1991 Gulf War, and to Sri Lanka after the 2005 tsunami. She typically has deployments of 5-8 years in support of the Trafalgar-class submarine on duty east of Suez, with a secondary role as a mothership for British and US minesweepers in the Persian Gulf. Until 2016 Diligence was set to go out of service in 2020. In August 2016, the UK Ministry of Defence placed an advert for the sale of RFA Diligence. The option for the delivery of future operational maintenance and repair capability for the RFA remain under consideration.
Diligence is designed to provide forward repair and maintenance facilities to ships and submarines operating away from their home ports, so in addition to a variety of workshops she can also provide overside electrical supplies, fuel, water and sullage reception. Diligence provides a large workshop facility for Royal Navy vessels, this is equipped with specialist machinery such as arc welding equipment, lathes, pillar drills, grinders, band saws and a large store of spares.
Diligence is the Royal Navy's primary battle damage repair unit, and is on short notice to react to developing situations worldwide. One of the key features of the ship's design is the dynamic positioning system which can keep the vessel static in poor conditions, using the ship's range of thrusters and the variable-pitch propeller.
The ship has a helicopter deck on the roof of her bridge that is large enough to support a CH-47 Chinook. The hull is built to the highest ice class specification, which allows her to navigate polar regions without the assistance of an icebreaker.
Diligence was built by Öresundsvarvet AB, in Landskrona, Sweden and launched in 1981 as a civilian oil rig support ship. She first served the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) during the Falklands War as a civilian owned ship taken up from the trade (STUFT). As MV Stena Inspector, the ship repaired many British vessels. Stena Inspector was purchased by the Government in 1983 for £25 million from Stena Offshore UK and renamed Diligence. She was sailed to the Clyde Dock Engineering facility, where she was converted and military features added, including a large workshop for hull and machinery repairs, supply facilities, accommodation, armaments and magazines and communications fits.
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