After more than four decades of activity, the United Kingdom confirmed the retirement of RFA Argus (A135), the last vessel still in service that participated in the 1982 Malvinas War. The unit, belonging to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, will depart the naval base at Portsmouth after an extensive career in which it carried out logistics support, naval aviation support, training, and medical assistance missions across various international deployments.
Built by Cantieri Navali Breda in Marghera, Italy, and launched on November 28, 1980 under the name Contender Bezant, the ship originally belonged to Sea Containers Ltd of Hamilton, Bermuda. Designed as a container ship and Roll-on/Roll-off cargo ferry, it had capacity for 1,108 TEU containers and was intended for international maritime trade.
Faced with the need to reinforce its support fleet during the South Atlantic conflict, the British Ministry of Defence requisitioned the vessel in May 1982 under the Ships Taken Up From Trade (STUFT) program, which incorporated civilian ships into the military fleet. In just five days it was converted into an aircraft transport ship, prepared to carry nine helicopters, four Harrier aircraft, and vehicles. It sailed from Devonport on May 20, 1982 toward the South Atlantic and, after a stop in Charleston, arrived at the islands in June. During the campaign, it operated at Puerto Groussac, near Puerto Argentino Airport, serving as a logistics and air transport vessel until its return to the United Kingdom in November of the same year.
Following the end of operations in the conflict, Contender Bezant was returned to its commercial owners. However, due to its good overall condition and technical characteristics, the British government decided to acquire it permanently in March 1984 for £18 million to convert it into a naval helicopter training ship. The work was carried out at the Harland & Wolff shipyards in Belfast, where a flight deck, aircraft elevators, a new radar, and military communications systems were added. Renamed RFA Argus (A135) on March 25, 1987, it entered service in June 1988, replacing the RFA Engadine as an aviation support platform.
Throughout its career, Argus underwent several modifications. During the 1990 Gulf War it was equipped with a 100-bed field hospital, which later evolved into a permanent medical facility distributed across three decks, with operating theaters, intensive care units, and CT scanning equipment. In 2009 it was officially reclassified as a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship (PCRS), a role it performed in evacuation and medical assistance operations in various scenarios, although without hospital ship status under the Geneva Conventions, as it retained defensive armament such as 30 mm Oerlikon cannons.
In its final years of service, the vessel experienced serious structural problems. Despite a modernization carried out in 2025 at the A&P Falmouth shipyards, which included the upgrade of several systems, technical deficiencies persisted, such as leaks in the propeller shafts and failures in fire doors. Inspections by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Lloyd’s Register determined that the ship was not safe to sail. Since its arrival in Portsmouth on June 8, 2025, Argus remained moored, unable to move under its own power.
With its final retirement, RFA Argus brings to an end more than four decades of service. Its history, which began as an Italian merchant ship and concluded as the last British vessel with participation in the Malvinas War, marks the close of a chapter that will reach its final point with the start of its dismantling.
Image credits: RFA Argus – Royal Navy.
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