RFA Argus Attends French Fly Navy 100

The British Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) Argus arrived at Toulon, France, on Thursday, June 10 to assist in the celebrations of 100 years of French Naval Aviation.

RFA Argus will be acting as an air controller and will provide helicopter support to two Royal Navy Merlin helicopters from 829 Naval Air Squadron from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose.  During the multi-national French-led exercise which tests anti-submarine warfare tactics and techniques,  aviation support expertise will provided by personnel from the Maritime Aviation Support Force, also based at RNAS  Culdrose.

The visit to Toulon came at the start of a busy 6 months deployment for RFA Argus.  She will later exercise her role as a Hospital Primary Care Receiving Facility (HPCRF) with embarked Royal Navy medical teams and will also be hard at work fulfilling her secondary role as an Aviation Training ship for the Royal Navy.

Argus’ Commanding Officer Captain Paul Kehoe said: “It is a great honour for RFA Argus to participate in these celebrations of 100 years of French Naval Aviation and cement the long standing good relations with our French allies”.

In her HPCRF role, she provides a fully-equipped, 100-bed casualty receiving facility offering services including a three-bay operating theatre and intensive care unit through to physiotherapy and a pathology laboratory.

The on-board hospital has all the necessary resources required to provide care to troops in war zones, as well as the capability to ensure wounded service personnel can quickly receive secondary medical care. The hospital is also equipped with a CT scanner, which enables scanning of trauma patients giving first class facilities which equal those of a district general hospital. 

Argus’ secondary role is in aviation training, providing specialist training facilities for the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm.  At 175 metres long, over half her length is given to a flight deck which allows her to operate all types of helicopters.