| ARA Patagonia (B-1) | |
|---|---|
 ARA Patagonia (ex-Durance (A629) during UNITAS manoeuvres | |
| Career (France) |  |
| Name: | Durance (A629) |
| Namesake: | Durance |
| Builder: | Brest Arsenal, Brest |
| Laid down: | 12 December 1973 |
| Launched: | 6 September 1975 |
| Commissioned: | 1 December 1976 |
| Fate: | Sold to Argentina |
| Career (Argentina) |  |
| Name: | ARA Patagonia (B1) |
| Namesake: | Patagonia |
| Acquired: | 12 July 1999 |
| Commissioned: | 9 July 2000 |
| Status: | In active service |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type: | Durance-class tanker |
| Displacement: |
7,600 tonnes (empty) 17,800 tonnes (full load) |
| Length: | 157.2 m (516 ft) |
| Beam: | 21.2 m (70 ft) |
| Draught: |
8.65 m (28.4 ft) (average) 10.8 m (35 ft) (full load) |
| Propulsion: | 2 × Two Pielstick 16 PC2-5 V 400 diesel engines, two shafts |
| Speed: | 19 knots (35 km/h) |
| Range: | 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
| Boats & landing craft carried: |
1 LCVP 1 9-metre boat 2 rigid-hulled inflatable boats |
| Complement: |
8 officers 62 non-commissioned officers 89 sailors |
| Sensors and processing systems: | 2 DRBN 34 radars |
| Armament: |
2 x Bofors 40 mm guns 4 x 12.7mm M2 Browning machine guns 2 x RBS 70 missile plataform |
| Aviation facilities: | UH-3H Sea King helicopter picture |
The ARA Patagonia (B-1) is a multi-product replenishment oiler of the Durance class in service in the Argentine Navy. She was the lead ship of her class serving in the French Navy as Durance (A629) from 1977 to 1999.
She is capable of supplying other ships with both RAS (Replenishment at Sea) and VERTREP (VERTical REPlenishment) methods.
French Service[]
Durance was launched on 6 September 1975 at Brest, France as a Pétrolier Revitailleur d´Escadre (PRE) entering service on 12 April 1977. After 559.393 nautical miles (1,035.996 km) with the French Navy she was decommissioned on 5 December 1997 and sold to the Argentine Navy on 12 July 1999.
Argentine Service[]
Renamed ARA Patagonia she arrived at Puerto Belgrano on 29 August 1999 where she spent one year in drydock receiving an overhaul of her engines and hull. She was officially commissioned as the B-1 (LPGA) into the Amphibious and Logistic Naval Command (COAL) of the fleet on 9 July 2000 and made her first voyage on the following month.[1]
Since then she has participated in numerous exercises and operations within the fleet and foreign navies including Pre-Unitas, UNITAS picture, Gringo-Gaucho, Atlasur, PASSEX, Gosth, and Fraterno with the United States, Chile, Brazil and Spain among others.
On May 2005 about 30 congressmen from Argentina and Chile celebrated the 20 anniversary of the Peace and Friendship Treaty aboard Patagonia.[2] On 2010 she served as support/control unit for the tall ships regatta that took part of the Argentina Bicentennial celebrations.[3]
She is annually deployed south during the Antarctic summer campaigns to supply the ARA Almirante Irizar and ARA Puerto Deseado operating from Ushuaia.[4]
References[]
Portions taken from Spanish Wikipedia
Further reading[]
- Guia de los buques de la Armada Argentina 2005-2006. Ignacio Amendolara Bourdette, ISBN 987-43-9400-5, Editor n/a. (Spanish/English text)
External links[]
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The original article can be found at ARA Patagonia (B-1) and the edit history here.