On 14 September the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) naval support vessel Argus (A135, IMO 7822550) arrived off Cape Town, from the military base at Diego Garcia, in the British Indian Ocean Territory. She entered Cape Town harbour, proceeding into the Duncan Dock and went alongside the Passenger Cruise Terminal at E berth.
Her arrival in Cape Town was very low key, and was completed with little fuss. Aside from recent visits by British Military Sealift Vessels, RFA Argus is quite likely to be the first British naval vessel to arrive in a South African port since HMS Protector (A173) in May 2018. For a naval auxiliary vessel she has an interesting history.
Built in 1981 by Societa Cantieri Navali Italiana Ernesto di Breda SpA at Marghera in Italy, she was launched as one of a pair of Ro-Ro container vessels, and originally named ‘Contender Bezant’ and operated by Sea Containers Ltd, of Hamilton in Bermuda. She has a length of 175 metres and a gross registered tonnage of 26 845 tons. She is powered by two Lindholmen SEMT-Pielstick 18PC2-5V eighteen cylinder, four stroke, main engines producing 23 400 bhp (17 450 kW) and driving two fixed pitch propellers for a service speed of 18 knots. For added manoeuvrability RFA Argus has twin rudders and a bow transverse thruster.
In 1982, as the Falkland Islands War was reaching its conclusion, she was requisitioned by the British Government as a Ship Taken Up From Trade (STUFT), to be converted to carry as an aviation transport to enable combat helicopters and Harrier jump jets to be taken down as part of British military operations to retake the islands from the Argentinian invaders. She arrived too late in the conflict to take part in the war, and after a voyage south was completed, she was initially returned back to her owners.
Lessons learned from the Falklands War meant that the decision was taken to purchase ‘Contender Bezant’ and convert her to an Aviation Training Vessel. In 1985 she was sent to the famous Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast where additional accommodation, a flight deck, two aircraft lifts and hangar facilities, over four decks, were fitted. She was renamed Argus and given the fleet pennant number A135, where ‘A’ stands for ‘Auxiliary’, and she was to be manned and operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, with a civilian crew, on behalf of the Royal Navy.
She continued in that role until 2009, when it was decided to give Argus a further conversion, this time to a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship (PCRS). She has a minimal fit of purely defensive armament, as opposed to offensive armament, which includes a Vulcan-Phalanx 20 mm Gatling gun close in weapons system (CIWS), and four 7.62 mm general purpose machine guns, together with two Sea Gnat Chaff launchers. This armament, despite it being defensive only, means that under the terms of the Geneva Convention she cannot be considered to be called a Hospital Ship, and cannot be marked as such, with a white hull and the display of the Red Cross.
As a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship (PCRS), the conversion of Argus included the removal of the forward aircraft lift, to be replaced by a double ramp down to her onboard hospital, to allow the movement of stretchers and gurneys from the flight deck to the new hospital. The forward hangars were converted into a 100 bed hospital complex, which included an Emergency Department, a Resuscitation Unit, a 10 bed Critical Care Unit, a 20 bed high dependency unit, two 35 bed general wards, four operating theatres, a Radiology Suite, a CT Scanner Unit, Pathology Laboratories, and a Mortuary. She has also been fitted with two 50 person lifts linking the flight deck to the hospital complex.
She maintains her aft aircraft lift, and her four aft aircraft hangars, which are arranged over four decks. She is capable of hangaring up to six Agusta AW101 Merlin helicopters, or a mix of Merlin, AW159 Wildcat and AH-64 Apache helicopters. She has three landing spots on her aircraft deck, and she can also carry CH-47 Chinook helicopters on her aircraft deck. When Argus is not required to be used as a PCRS, she continues to be utilised as an Aviation Training Vessel. As well as a Kelvin Hughes Sharpeye Navigation Radar, she is also fitted with a Naval Type 994 2D AWS-10 Air Search Radar.
She carries an operating crew of 80 officers and ratings, and up to 180 personnel when carrying a Maritime Aviation Support Force, and up to 200 Military Medical Staff when tasked as a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship (PCRS). To enable her to operate in any part of the world, she has an operational range of 20 000 nautical miles, and she is also able to transfer fuel to other vessels that are operating with her. She is the only PCRS vessel in the Royal Navy fleet, and is known as a ‘Casualty Class’ vessel.
Her current voyage that brought her to Cape Town began back in October 2023, when she formed part of the Royal Navy’s Littoral Response Group (South), together with ‘RFA Lyme Bay L3007’, initially to operate East of Suez as an Amphibious Task Group. For this tasking she carries three AW101 Merlin HC.4 helicopters, which are different from the AW101 Merlin HM.2 helicopter, as the HC.4 version is a troop carrier utilised by the Commando Helicopter Force, and is equipped with a rear loading ramp, and does not carry anti-submarine equipment, or a Searchwater radar.
Her three AW101 Merlin HC.4 helicopters are all from 845 Naval Air Squadron (NAS), based at RNAS Yeovilton, in Somerset, with her Flight Deck handling, and Air Traffic services, being provided by 1700 Naval Air Squadron, based at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall.
Her voyage took her from Devonport RN base at Plymouth in the UK, to the RN base in Gibraltar, and then onto Cyprus, where she was tasked to maintain a presence due to the Gaza Crisis. In March 2024 she was released to make her way through Suez, where she had an escort provided by the RN Destroyer HMS Diamond, which had been tasked to the Red Sea to provide anti-missile cover to shipping that was being targeted by the Houthi terrorists.
On clearing the Red Sea, Argus proceeded to the British Logistics Base at Duqm in Oman, before sailing to Kattupalli, south of Chennai in India, for a maintenance period. She was the first British warship to conduct maintenance in an Indian drydock, under a new arrangement with the Indian Government that both the RN and the USN are using. This is a sign that India is concentrating on her ‘Quad’ role, and providing naval facilities for military forces that, like India, view the Chinese PLAN as a direct threat in the region. She took part in naval exercises with the Indian Navy.
From India Argus proceeded to Singapore, where she arrived in May, before heading south to Darwin, in the Northern territory of Australia, arriving in June, and where she undertook a major military exercise as part of the AUKUS arrangement with Marine forces of Australia, the United States and the Philippines. Another signal of military cooperation aimed at sending a message to China. For these exercises she carried assault troops from 40 Commando, Royal Marines, plus Marines from 24 Commando, 29 Commando, 30 Commando, and the Commando Logistics Regiment.
On completion of her exercises in Northern Australia, Argus proceeded to the British Support Base at Muara in Brunei, before heading to the Sembawang Naval Base in Singapore for a further period of maintenance. On sailing from Singapore, she headed to the US Naval Base at Diego Garcia, arriving there in late August. She sailed for Cape Town on 23 August, for her five day visit. Her Cape Town call was a diversionary call, avoiding the Red Sea, due to the lack of a suitable warship to provide her with a protective escort through Houthi territory.
As scheduled, after five days alongside in Cape Town, and after taking on bunkers, stores, and fresh provision, Argus was ready to sail. At 16:00 in the afternoon of 19 September, she sailed from Cape Town, but her AIS gave no destination, although she is expected to be heading back to the UK. It can be expected that she may call at the military base as Ascension Island, and possibly even St Helena, when heading back to the UK, and again is expected to call at Gibraltar, before her expected arrival at Falmouth, or Plymouth, in the UK.
She is due to remain in British naval service until at least 2030, and her long career has seen her being used in many of the world’s hotspots as both an Aviation platform, and a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship (PCRS). This includes the Falklands War in 1982, the First Gulf War in 1991, the Bosnia War in 1992, the Kosovo War in 1998, Sierra Leone in 2000 when the British Military removed the terrorist West Side Boys from the country, and again in Sierra Leone in 2015 when she provided medical and logistics support during the Ebola Crisis in the country.
Written by Jay Gates for Africa Ports & Ships and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.
