The Royal Fleet Auxiliary RFA Argus is making final preparations at the docks before deploying to West Africa on Friday to help combat Ebola as part of the government’s Operation Gritlock.
Medical supplies and equipment were loaded onto the ship earlier this week as her crew prepared for this humanitarian deployment.
Argus will sail to Sierra Leone where she will act primarily as an aviation support vessel for the three Merlin helicopters embarked from RNAS Culdrose.
The ship’s commanding officer is Captain David Eagles, who lives in south east Cornwall.
The UK armed forces have so far played a pivotal role in delivering the current British support as they work with the government of Sierra Leone to tackle the crisis. Using British expertise and local building contractors, the UK has committed to support 700 new beds in Ebola treatment facilities. This package will further support the country’s stretched public health services in containing the disease by helping up to nearly 8,800 patients over a 6-month period.
Argus is Falmouth’s best known vessel having visited the port many times during her early career and she is now base-ported here as part of the MOD Cluster contract with the A&P Group.
After the Falklands conflict in which she was a STUFT (Ship Taken Up From Trade) acting as an aircraft transport she came to Falmouth as the container ship Contender Bezant.
In 1985 she was converted to an aviation training ship at Harland & Wolff, Belfast, with extended accommodation, a flight deck, aircraft lifts and naval radar communications suites.
Her role now is to serve as a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship, there is a fully equipped 100 bed hospital including a four bay operating theatre with a 10 bed Critical Care Unit, a 20 bed High Dependency Unit and a CT Scanner. A secondary role is to provide aviation training facilities.
RFA Argus does not comply with the Geneva Convention's definition of a 'hospital ship' as she is fitted with self-defence guns and decoys and may have operational units embarked. Thus she is not classified as a hospital ship and does not dispaly the International Red Cross symbol.
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