RFA ''Green Rover'' (A268) was a fleet support tanker of the

Royal Fleet Auxiliary The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence. It provides logistical and operational support to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. The RFA ensures the Royal Navy is supplied and supported by ...

, built by

Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. At its apex, the company represented the combined forces of three ...

on the

River Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed 'The Meeting of the Wat ...

, UK and completed in 1969. After decommissioning in 1992 she was sold to the

Indonesian Navy The Indonesian Navy ( id, Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Laut, , Indonesian National Military-Naval Force, TNI-AL) is the naval branch of the Indonesian National Armed Forces. It was founded on 10 September 1945 and has a role to patrol ...

and renamed KRI ''Arun'' (903)

Design and construction

The were single-hulled tankers, designed to carry a mixture 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), b ...

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 enhan ...

lubricating oil A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, t ...

and

fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

supply for services around the globe; they could also carry limited dried stores of 340 tonnes such as munitions and refrigerated goods. They were built with a

flight deck The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface from which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopte ...

large enough to accommodate two helicopters, although no

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

was fitted. Although not big enough to support a large task group, these ships were ideal for supporting individual warships or small groups on deployment. The

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

of ''Green Rover'' was laid at Swan Hunter Shipbuilders Ltd's

Hebburn Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the sou ...

yard on the

, UK on 28 February 1968, she was launched on 19 December the same year, and completed on 15 August 1969. She was in service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary from 1969 until 1992.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary service

One of ''Green Rover''s first duties was to attend Navy Days at Chatham. In September 1969 she towed the disabled from the North Atlantic to Devonport. In September 1971 she carried out deck landing trials with the new

Harrier jump jet The Harrier, informally referred to as the Harrier jump jet, is a family of jet-powered attack aircraft capable of vertical/short takeoff and landing operations (V/STOL). Named after a bird of prey, it was originally developed by British ma ...

while moored at Greenwich Pier on the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

. ''Green Rover'' was decommissioned in 1992 from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

Indonesian Navy service

In April 1992 the ship was purchased by her builders who then resold her to the

for £6 million. She was towed from

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

to the Tyne renamed ''C'' to be taken in hand for a four-month refurbishment before re-entering service for her new owners. Commissioned as KRI ''Arun'' (903), in addition to providing tanker duties, she also became the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the ...

of the Training Command in the Indonesian fleet. She is still in service as of 2018. On 19 March 2018 ''Arun'' took on a severe list during a replenishment operation off Ujung,

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...

. The exercise was cancelled and she was towed to naval facilities at Surabaya for technical examination.

References

Tankers of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Rover-class tankers 1968 ships Auxiliary ships of the Indonesian Navy {{UK-aux-ship-stub