French tanker Durance

For other ships with the same name, see ARA Patagonia.

ARA Patagonia (ex-Durance (A629)) during UNITAS manoeuvres
History
France
Name	Durance
Namesake	Durance
Builder	Brest Arsenal, Brest
Laid down	12 December 1973
Launched	6 September 1975
Commissioned	1 December 1976
Fate	Sold to Argentina
Argentina
Name	Patagonia
Namesake	Patagonia
Acquired	12 July 1999
Commissioned	9 July 2000
Status	In active service
General characteristics
Class and type	Template:Sclass-
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 × Pielstick 16 PC2-5 V 400 diesel engines, two shafts (14,710 kW)
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 × Bofors 40 mm guns 4 × 12.7 mm M2 Browning machine guns 2 × RBS 70 missile plataform
Aviation facilities	UH-3H Sea King helicopter picture

ARA Patagonia (B-1) is a multi-product replenishment oiler of the Template:Sclass- 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. 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 with the pennant number 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.

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.

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 ships regatta that took part of the Argentina Bicentennial celebrations.

She is annually deployed south during the Antarctic summer campaigns to supply ARA Almirante Irízar and ARA Puerto Deseado operating from Ushuaia.

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)
• Garcia Pedroche, Sergio; Nuñez Padin, Jorge Felix (2004). Nuñez Padin, Jorge Felix (ed.). ARA B1 "Patagonia". Fuerzas Navales (in Spanish). Vol. Nº1. Bahia Blanca, Argentina: Fuerzas Aeronavales. Retrieved 2016-07-23.

External links

• Official site