RFA Lyme Bay received a fuel transfer from RFA Argus in the Indian Ocean.
RFA Lyme Bay is a Bay-class landing ship dock of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, tasked primarily with logistical support for amphibious operations and humanitarian missions.
The tweet detailed an operational interaction where RFA Argus, another Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship, replenished RFA Lyme Bay’s fuel reserves on a particularly hot day.
The amount of fuel transferred was enough to fill the tank of an average car 10,000 times, emphasising the scale of operations and logistical capabilities of the Royal Navy’s support vessels in maintaining operational readiness and endurance at sea.
Proving self sustainability ✅️@RFAArgus tops up our tanks on a sweltering day in the Indian Ocean. Argus provided us with enough fuel to fill the average car up 10,000 times ⛽️ pic.twitter.com/Hhe1OZk3kp
— RFA LYME BAY (@RFALymeBay) April 21, 2024
Good training for the crews… could it have been anything else?
I mean, Argus topping up fuel on another RFA?
10,000 average car fuel tanks is all well and good, but we need at least one other TN (Tabloid Newspaper) method of measurement! How many equivalent pots of Ambrosia custard?
Nah, go with the old reliable of Olympic swimming pools.
How could I have been so stupid- that is of course the natural unit of measurement for this volume of fuel…
Get a grip… it’s tins of beans or nothing.
How many football fields or sizes of Wales is that?
With regards Wales, it does depend a bit on whether we’re flattening our the bumpy bits or not…
I’ve called here before for George to do an article standardising comparative units of measure.
For example, how many arm lengths to a london bus? How many football pitches to London to Wales?
Most importantly, how many sausages is equivalent to a tin of beans?
If this doesn’t happen, we will forever be left in the dark, unable to comprehend.
You have missed out the following SMoD Units:-
Nelson’s Column; and
Big Ben.
Without those being clarified I fear general disorder.
A piece of string to the moon… and back.
It’s too late, we should have campaigned before April 1 so George could pretend it was an official MoD policy to standardise MoD comparative units. Else one of us will have to submit an independent article making the matter clear for the rest of us.
Don’t give him ideas!
Oh, too late …………….
You’re right, it’s necessary; the true capabilities of our military forces can’t be truly grasped by the public at large if they can’t convert between the Foodstuffs and Transport scales, let alone the Safari scale. And an uninformed public can be tricked too easily by headlines about the number of sausages that can be stretched across our helicopter fleet, without realising that we only have 24 elephants’ worth of Medium lift…
You’re thinking Imperial but quoting metric. You’ve overthought this, haven’t you?
I have, it’s a bad habit of mine…
As an engineer I am mostly thinking in metric and occasionally having to translate to imperial when talking to Americans, it can be a bit tiring!
I think we should scrap the entire navy and just reaped it with 50 RFA Argus. From LHD to hospital ship and now at sea replenishment she seems to be able to do everything.
Best bargain the British tax payer ever got.
Just add an extra Phalanx to above the bridge just to finish her fit out off. Might need to move a few bits and pieces to squeeze it in! 😁
A true Swiss army knife. I know they ditch the idea of fuel replenishment and sea for the upcoming FSS, maybe they should have another look at it before construction starts so to add more options and depth to the RN,s capacity?
It’s such a good idea. They are large ships and there will be space for fuel storage. How much dry stores will the RN of tomorrow need?
They don’t need to have massive amounts of fuel but enough for a few ships.
If it turns out it’s never used and weapon storage are needed instead tanks should be removable at refit.
What is needed for the RFA is escorts. Or the RFA needs to get anti air, surface and subsurface on each ship. Escorts would be better.
Like you say it doesn’t need to be a huge capacity, that’s what the tankers are for but enough to top up a couple of frigates or destroyers. With the size of 39000 tones surely there is room?
I would think so. Mind you I didn’t know Argus could do RAS
You know what, it was news to me too. Mind you if she just cruses at a reduced of 10 knots she has a range of 20000 nautical miles so she must hold a fair few litres of diesel?