ARA ''Patagonia'' (B-1) is a multi-product

replenishment oiler A replenishment oiler or replenishment tanker is a naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks and dry cargo holds which can supply both fuel and dry stores during underway replenishment (UNREP) at sea. Many countries have used replenishment oilers. The ...

of the in service in the

Argentine Navy The Argentine Navy (ARA; es, Armada de la República Argentina). This forms the basis for the navy's ship prefix "ARA". is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the ...

. She was the lead ship of her class serving in the French Navy as ''Durance'' (A 629) from 1977 to 1999. In French service, the ship served with the ''Force d'action navale'' (FAR, "

Naval Action Force The ''Force d'action navale'' (FAN, Naval Action Force) is the 9,600-man and about 100-ship force of surface warships of the French Navy. As of 2018, it is commanded by Vice-Amiral d’Escadre Jean-Philippe Rolland. The ships are divided into se ...

"). In Argentine service the vessel is used in multi-national naval exercises and supplies the Antarctic missions operating from Ushuaia. In 2017, ''Patagonia'' was used to search for the missing submarine .

Description

In French service, the first two ships of the were dubbed ''Pétrolier Ravitailleur d'Escadre'' (PRE, "fleet replenishment oiler"). ''Durance'' as constructed, carried two cranes abaft the bridge. ''Durance'' has a standard displacement of and at full load. ''Durance'' is

long overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and ...

and between perpendiculars with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of empty and at full load. The ship is powered by two SEMT Pielstick 16 PC2.5 V 400 diesel engines turning two LIPS

controllable pitch propeller In marine propulsion, a variable-pitch propeller is a type of propeller with blades that can be rotated around their long axis to change the blade pitch. Reversible propellers—those where the pitch can be set to negative values—can also ...

s rated at . The vessel has a maximum speed of and a range of at . ''Durance'' was equipped with two landing craft for vehicles and personnel. The ship has two dual solid/liquid underway transfer stations per side and can replenish two ships per side and one astern. As built, ''Durance'' had capacity for of

fuel oil Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum (crude oil). Such oils include distillates (the lighter fractions) and residues (the heavier fractions). Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), bun ...

, of

diesel oil Diesel fuel , also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and t ...

, of JP-5

aviation fuel Aviation fuels are petroleum-based fuels, or petroleum and synthetic fuel blends, used to power aircraft. They have more stringent requirements than fuels used for ground use, such as heating and road transport, and contain additives to enhanc ...

, of distilled water, of provisions, of munitions and of spare parts. The ''Durance''-class tankers all mount a flight deck over the stern and a hangar. The ship utilised Aérospatiale Alouette III and Westland Lynx helicopters in French service, but are capable of operating larger ones from their flight deck. For defence, ''Durance'' was armed with twin-mounted Bofors /L60

anti-aircraft Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

(AA) guns and four machine guns. The ship is equipped with two Racal Decca 1226 radars. In Argentine service, ''Patagonia'' has a complement of 164 including 10 officers with accommodation for 29 more.

Construction and career

French service

''Durance'' was the first ship ordered in its class, and was constructed by the Arsenal de Brest at Brest, France, with its keel laid down on 10 December 1973. The ship was launched on 6 September 1975. The vessel entered service on 1 December 1976. In French service, the ship was assigned to the ''Force d'action navale'' (FAR, "

"). ''Durance'' was decommissioned on 5 December 1997 and placed in reserve. The ship was sold to the

on 12 July 1999.

Argentine service

Renamed ARA ''Patagonia'', the replenishment ship arrived at

Puerto Belgrano Port Belgrano Naval Base ( es, Base Naval Puerto Belgrano - BNPB) is the largest naval base of the Argentine Navy, situated next to Punta Alta, near Bahía Blanca, about south of Buenos Aires. It is named after the brigantine ''General Belgr ...

on 29 August 1999 where she spent one year in

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

receiving an overhaul of her engines and hull. She was commissioned with the

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

B-1 (LGPA) into the Amphibious and Logistic Naval Command (COAL) of the fleet on 9 July 2000 and made her first voyage in the following month. Since then ''Patagonia'' has participated in numerous exercises and operations within the fleet and foreign navies including Pre-Unitas, UNITAS,

Gringo-Gaucho Gringo-Gaucho are a contingent set of maneuvers performed between the Argentine Naval Aviation and United States Navy's aircraft carriers. The US Navy refers to them as Southern Seas in their last edition. Gringo and Gaucho are linguistic and fol ...

, Atlasur, PASSEX, Ghost, and Fraterno with the United States, Chile, Brazil and Spain among others. The ship is annually deployed south during the

Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...

summer campaigns to supply and operating from Ushuaia. In May 2005 about 30 congressmen from Argentina and Chile celebrated the 20 anniversary of the Peace and Friendship Treaty aboard ''Patagonia''. In 2010 she served as support/control unit for the

tall ship A tall ship is a large, traditionally- rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or fe ...

s regatta that took part of the

Argentina Bicentennial The Argentina Bicentennial ( es, bicentenario argentino) was a series of ceremonies, festivals, and observances celebrated on May 25, 2010, and throughout the year. They commemorated the 200th anniversary of the May Revolution, a sequence of histo ...

celebrations. In November 2017, ''Patagonia'' was used in the search for the missing Argentine submarine . The ship was reported non-operational in 2020. However, as of 2022 it was designated to participate in UNITAS 2022 exercises in Brazil. In October 2022, it was reported that the Argentine defence ministry had allocated funding for a refit of the ship to be carried out at the Puerto Belgrano Naval Arsenal in collaboration with the Tandanor shipyard. The ship was reported to have entered dry dock in early 2023. Work on the ship, involving general maintenance and repair, was reported to have been completed in June 2023.

References

Notes

Citations

''Portions taken from Spanish Wikipedia''

Bibliography

* *

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patagonia Durance-class tankers of the Argentine Navy Ships built in France 1975 ships Auxiliary ships of Argentina