"Should have been replaced": Ex RFA Argus Commanding Officer laments broken ship stuck at Portsmouth Navy base
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The former Commanding Officer of a broken naval ship which is too unsafe to sail believes the vessel should have been long-since replaced.
Captain Simon Booth, who served in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary for 37 years, was not surprised to hear that RFA Argus was suffering from mechanical problems. The Primary Casualty Receiving Ship is currently stuck at HMNB Portsmouth after having her safety certification withdrawn.
Capt Booth took command of RFA Argus on numerous occasions, and said he faced problems during his service. “She should have been replaced a number of years ago,” he told The News. “When I was working in Whitehall, it was one of the plans we had, but as so often, we never had the right money at the right time to push forward and deliver a new ship.
“There were always conflicting demands, one of which being the aircraft carrier. I’m not in the slightest surprised. I had issues with the steering gear when I was there and they took ages to fix it, because she’s so old and we hadn’t done the repair work the original manufacturer recommended twenty-plus years before. When you don’t do that, you run into problems.”
“Lack of succession planning”
A source told The Sun that RFA Argus was “hollowed out”, and there was no way she could sail to Falmouth in Cornwall as planned. The ship was originally a merchant vessel converted by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) after being requisitioned in 1982 for the Falklands War.
“She is a very old girl,” Capt Booth added. “She was designed for a commercial working life of 10-15 years with her original owners, then another 10-15 years in the secondary market before being scrapped. The RFA is planning to keep her until she’s 50, which is a very ambitious target.”
Engineers were overhauling RFA Argus ahead of a proposed return to the fleet. She returned to sea for trials in April after a two year spell on the side-lines. Politicians, including Portsmouth North MP Amanda Martin, were given a tour of the vessel to promote what the vessel can do.
As well as being a medical support ship, RFA Argus is used for Aviation Training purposes and can act as an amphibious landing vessel - with her large deck able to house several units of personnel.
Capt Booth is worried about older ships not being replaced fast enough. “It’s fair to say the military look after their ships and keep them much longer than in the commercial world, but there is a lack of succession planning,” he said.
“Is it an equipment, personnel, or obsolescence issue? All of these things play into that lack of a proper plan. Before I left, there were significant issues about how we managed safety around the naval service, and whether we were able to deliver what we intended.”
Despite RFA Argus’ mechanical problems, the former RFA CO said the vessel was an “absolutely fabulous capability” due to her versatility. He believes her being unavailable will have a major impact on the Royal Navy and RFA - both of which struggling due to a lack of ships.
Solve Those Problems
“You’re either going to have to build from scratch, which is going to take some time because defence is notoriously slow at building anything, or you’re going to have to bring in a ship and convert it,” Capt Booth said. “The primary thing to do is to get her back in service. Her issues should be relatively straightforward to assess. I know the surveyors have run out of patience with the way that stuff has been put off.
“Solve those problems, the surveyor will become happy, and you’ll be able to take the ship back to sea. At the same time, you have to develop a strategy to deliver a new capability. The defence secretary recently said we’ll be taking on the Chinese Navy over Taiwan should it come to that, and you’re definitely going to need a medical capability to do that.
“Trying to shoehorn it into one of the other remaining ships has been shown to be grossly expensive and reduces capabilities elsewhere. Realistically, you’re buying a ship, converting it, and putting it to see. More importantly, you have to recruit for the RFA.”
A Royal Navy spokesperson previously said: “We are collaborating closely with Lloyd's surveyors, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and our industry partners to address issues recently identified with RFA Argus.”