| RFA Reliant (A131) | |
|---|---|
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | RFA Reliant |
| Builder: | Gdańsk Shipyard |
| Launched: | 6 July 1976 |
| Completed: | 20 January 1977 as Astronomer |
| Commissioned: | 16 November 1983 as Reliant |
| Decommissioned: | 25 July 1986 |
| Renamed: | April 1989 as Wealthy River |
| Struck: | 1986 |
| Fate: | Sold back into merchant service on 27 October 1986 and renamed Admiralty Island. Arrived at Alang for demolition on 9 July 1998 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 28,000 tons full load |
| Length: | 204 m (669 ft) |
| Beam: | 31 m (102 ft) |
| Draught: | 7.9 m (26 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 1 x 10 cyl Sulzer diesel, 29,000 bhp. One shaft |
| Speed: | 28 knots (52 km/h) |
| Complement: |
61 RFA 150 RN |
| Armament: | 4 x 20 mm guns |
| Aircraft carried: | Up to five Westland Sea King |
RFA Reliant (A131) was a helicopter support ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was built in 1977 in Poland, at the Gdańsk Shipyard, as a conventional container ship. She was taken up from the trade in 1982 for service in the Falklands War, and was fitted with the Arapaho containerized aircraft handling system, a hangar and a flight deck. After the war, she commissioned into the RFA. Her first operational sortie was to the coast of Lebanon in support of the British Army in Beirut, eventually evacuating the same in February 1984. Upon returning to UK she proceeded to the Falklands for what was expected to be an extended deployment. However, it did not last long as the Arapaho system proved to be completely unsatisfactory for handling aircraft. She was decommissioned in 1986 and sold back into conventional merchant service.
The original article can be found at RFA Reliant (A131) and the edit history here.