RFA Argus

RFA Argus (A135) is an aviation training ship with a secondary role of primary casualty receiving ship in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. 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.

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, her stability when unloaded would be excessive 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 2/3 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.

Argus was fitted with a fully functional hospital for the 1991 Gulf crisis, which has since been added to, providing 100 beds. It is equipped with the best of equipment: x-ray facilities, CAT scanner, ITU ward etc. Casualties can be quickly transferred from the deck directly into the assessment area. In recent conflicts, the ship's role as a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship (referred to as such rather than a hospital ship as the vessel is armed, thus not meeting the Geneva Convention definition of a hospital ship) has been more prominent than its aviation training duties.

In 2007 the ship was refitted with upgraded hospital facilities (replacing the forward aircraft lift with a ramp for emergency exit for hospital trollies and patients as well as two 50-man passenger lifts that lead to a new structure erected on the flight deck), generators and aviation systems (the ship is due to receive an upgrade to its night-vision capabilities enabling the use of AH-64 Apache helicopters) to give an operational life until 2020.

Argus entered service with the RFA in 1988, replacing RFA Engadine in the aviation training role. The ship deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1991 for service in the Gulf War, and also saw service in the Adriatic in 1993 and 1999 supporting British operations in Bosnia and over Kosovo respectively. During this period, Argus LPH. Her unsuitability for this role was a major factor in the commissioning of HMS Ocean. In 2003 Argus was deployed again to the Gulf as part of a 33 ship fleet to support a British amphibious assault of the Peninsula. Argus operated in its PCRS role.

In 2008 she deployed to the Middle East to act as a platform for Sea King ASaCs7 helicopters.  A program to replace Argus called the Joint Casualty Treatment Ship (JCTS) was put on hold in December 2001 after passing initial approval. The Integrated Project Team (IPT) managing the project was subsequently disbanded in 2005.

The ship was most recently stationed in's home port is Falmouth in Cornwall England England although being an RFA ship means that she also uses the former naval dockyard in Portland in Dorse.

During times of war RFA Argus acts as a floating hospital with two full wards and mortuary. The last time the hospital was utilised in this way was off the coast of Freetown in 2000-01, in support of British operations against the rebel West Side Boys.

She is seen arriving in Sunday 16th August 2010 after her recent £37million pound refit.

Approaching the lock entrance

A tight squeeze as she enters the lock

Sitting in the locks waiting for the levels to equalise

Safely through the lock making her way (slowly) to the Imperial Dock

Passing through the very narrow Imperial Dock entrance

Through the entrance making her way to her berth

Finally on her berth

The view from her bridge

Main engine controls

CT Scanner

The operating theatre

The HDU (High Dependancy Unit)

Entrance to the hospital via the flight deck

Down the ramp and into the hospital

The ship's four diesel generators

This is the hangar deck capable of holding 4 Sea King helicopters

The flight deck towards the ship

Looking at the flight deck from the superstructure

She is seen here departing Leith 27 August 2010 after her 11 day stay

Coming through the cut at the Imperial Dock

Look at how tight it is coming through the cut

Finally on her way to the locks

Safely in the locks

On her way back to open water

Spruance Class Destroyers

The Spruance-class destroyer was developed by the United States to replace a large number of World War II-built Allen M. Sumner- and Gearing-class destroyers, and was the primary destroyer built for the U.S. Navy during the 1970s.

Serving for three decades, the Spruance class was designed to escort a carrier group with a primary antisubmarine warfare mission. First commissioned in 1975, the class was designed with gas-turbine propulsion, all-digital weapons systems, automated 5-inch guns and Tomahawk cruise missiles. Rather than extend the life of the class, the Navy opted to accelerate its retirement. The last ship of the class was decommissioned in 2005, with most examples broken up or destroyed as targets.

Class

The class was designed for anti-submarine warfare (ASW) with point defense anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) missiles; upgrades provided anti-ship and land attack capabilities. The ships were initially controversial, especially among members of the United States Congress who believed that their unimposing looks, with only two guns and an ASROC or Armored Box Launcher (ABL) missile launcher per ship implied that the vessels were weak compared to Soviet or older US designs which had more visible guns or launchers for the Standard medium range missiles. Late updates would include launchers for the Tomahawk surface-to-surface missile. They were successful for their intended ASW roles, but lacked stealth and missile capabilities of later Aegis equipped destroyers.

Despite their "DD" designation indicating gun destroyers, their primary armament was the missiles they carried, and arguably they should have been designated DDG (or perhaps CG, given that they were comparable in size to cruisers) under the US Navy's hull classification symbol system.

The "Spru-cans" were the first large U.S. Navy ships to use gas turbine propulsion; they have four General Electric LM2500 gas turbines to generate about 80,000 horsepower (60 MW). This configuration (developed in the 1960s by the Royal Navy and known as COmbined Gas And Gas, or COGAG) was so successful that its hull and physical plant were used for the later Kidd-class destroyers. A slightly lengthened version of the hull was also used for the Ticonderoga-class cruisers.

As of 2010, all US Navy surface combatants (except LCS-1) use the LM2500 COGAG arrangement, usually with two such turbines per shaft.

The entire class of 30 ships was contracted on June 23, 1970 to the Litton-Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, under the Total Package Procurement concept originated by the Whiz Kids of Robert McNamara's Pentagon. The idea was to reap the benefits of mass construction, but labor and technical problems caused cost overruns and delayed construction. One additional ship, USS Hayler, was ordered on September 29, 1979. Hayler was originally planned as a DDH (Destroyer, Helicopter) design, which would carry more Anti-Submarine helicopters than the standard design of the Spruance class. Eventually this plan to build a DDH was scrapped and a slightly modified DD-963 class hull was put in commission. Four additional ships were built for the Iranian Navy with the Mark 26/Standard AAW missile system but were completed as Kidds for the U.S. Navy.

An air capable mini STOVL aircraft carrier with fighters and ASW helicopters based on the Spruance hull was seriously considered but the Navy never took delivery.

Upgrades

The Spruance design is modular in nature, allowing for easy installation of entire subsystems within the ship. Although originally designed for anti-submarine warfare, 24 ships of this class were upgraded with the installation of a 61 cell Vertical Launch Missile System (VLS) capable of launching Tomahawk missiles. The remaining seven ships not upgraded were decommissioned early. At least ten VLS ships, including Cushing, O'Bannon, and Thorn, had a 21 cell RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launcher mounted on the starboard fantail.

• David R. Ray tested the RAM system in the 1980s, but had the system removed after the tests.
• Oldendorf was the test platform for the AN/SPQ-9B Anti-ship Missile Defense (ASMD) Firecontrol Radar to be outfitted on the San Antonio class amphibious transport dock. The AN/SPQ-9B is used to detect all known and projected sea skimming missiles.
• Arthur W. Radford tested the Advanced Enclosed Mast/Sensor system which helped in the mast design of San Antonio class amphibious transport dock ships.
• Merrill served as the Navy's test platform for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile Program receiving armored box launchers and test launching a Tomahawk March 19, 1980. Merrill carried two ABLs and an ASROC launcher into the 1990s until the ASROC launcher was removed.

Spruance class destroyers fired 112 land attack Tomahawks during Operation Desert Storm.

Fate

The US Navy planned to replace its current destroyers and cruisers with the new Zumwalt class destroyer The last Spruance-class destroyer on active service, USS Cushing, was decommissioned on September 21, 2005. It was then offered to the Pakistan Navy, but was sunk as a target 29 April 2009. Per the 2010 U.S. Defense budget, three DDG-1000s are being built, and the stealth-designed and standard missile equipped Arleigh Burke class is the Navy's only operational class of destroyers. (DDG-1000) ships. In order to save $28 million a year the Navy accelerated retirement of the ships, though they could have served to 2019 if they had been maintained and updated.

Some were broken up, but rather than being preserved in storage like some older classes, the majority of the class finished their lives as targets. Most were deliberately sunk in various fleet exercises.

The USS Paul F. Foster replaced the USS Decatur in 2005 as the Self Defense Test Ship. It is a refurbished ship, operated by remote control which avoids the safety constraints and other problems associated with manned ships being targeted by or towing targets by live weapons. The prearranged attack is in practice aimed at a decoy barge pulled 150 feet behind the SDTS in case of damage.

 

Ships of the class

Ship Name		Hull No		Service
Spruance		DD-963		1975-2005
Paul F. Foster		DD-964		1976-2003
Kinkaid		DD-965		1976-2003
Hewitt		DD-966		1976-2001
Elliot		DD-967		1977-2003
Arthur W. Radford		DD-968		1977-2003
Peterson		DD-969		1977-2002
Caron		DD-970		1977-2001
David R. Ray		DD-971		1977-2002
Oldendorf		DD-972		1978-2003
John Young		DD-973		1978-2002
Comte de Grasse		DD-974		1978-1998
O'Brien		DD-975		1977-2004
Merrill		DD-976		1978-1998
Briscoe		DD-977		1978-2003
Stump		DD-978		1978-2004
Conolly		DD-979		1978-1998
Moosbrugger		DD-980		1978-2000
John Hancock		DD-981		1978-2000
Nicholson		DD-982		1979-2002
John Rodgers		DD-983		1979-1998
Leftwich		DD-984		1979-1998
Cushing		DD-985		1979-2005
Harry W. Hill		DD-986		1979-1998
O'Bannon		DD-987		1979-2005
Thorn		DD-988		1980-2004
Deyo		DD-989		1980-2003
Ingersoll		DD-990		1980-1998
Fife		DD-991		1980-2003
Fletcher		DD-992		1980-2004
Hayler		DD-997		1983-2003

USS Sprance (DD-963) is seen here alongside Faslane

Inside the USS Roosevelt (DDG 80) at Faslane

Departing Faslane