RFA Gold Rover (A271)

RFA Gold Rover leaving Plymouth Sound
History
United Kingdom
Name:	RFA Gold Rover
Ordered:	November 1971
Builder:	Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom
Launched:	7 March 1973
Commissioned:	22 March 1974
Identification:	Pennant number: A271
Status:	Active in service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Rover class
Displacement:	11522 tons full load
Length:	461 ft 04 in (140.61 m)
Beam:	63 ft 02 in (19.25 m)
Draught:	23 ft 11 in (7.29 m)
Installed power:	15,300 shp
Propulsion:	2 x 16 cyl Pielstick diesels
Speed:	19 knots
Range:	15,000 miles (24,000 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Endurance:	8,000 nautical miles
Capacity:	3,000 m³ of fuel
Complement:	16 officers 31 ratings
Crew:	60+
Sensors and processing systems:	Sperry Marine Visionmaster radars and ECDIS. 1690 I band navigation radars
Electronic warfare & decoys:	2 × Corvus and 2 × Plessey Shield decoy launchers Graseby Type 182 towed torpedo decoy
Armament:	2 × Oerlikon 20 mm guns 2 × 7.62 mm machine guns
Aircraft carried:	Helicopter deck but no hangar

RFA Gold Rover is a small fleet tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and is one of five^[1] Rover-class ships that were designed by the Admiralty, all of which were built at the Swan Hunter shipyard.

Today Gold Rover and her sister Black Rover are the last two in service with the RFA^[2] on duty around the world. The others have all been phased out as part of a worldwide effort to replace single-hulled tankers with more environmentally safe double-hulled vessels.^[3] Gold Rover will be decommissioned in 2017.^[4]

Notes

The Rover class is predominantly used to transport fuel, oil, aviation fuel for services around the globe. It can carry limited dried stores of 340 tonnes such as munitions and refrigerated goods.^[5] They also come with a helicopter landing pad that can accommodate 2 helicopters, although no hangar is fitted.

Major duties

In July 1974 Gold Rover participated in evacuation duties during the partition of Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of the island.^[5]

Gold Rover participated in the 1986 Jamaican flood relief operations. In January 2000 she was towed back to Devonport by two RMAS tugs after breaking down off Lizard Point.

2006 was a busy year for Gold Rover. She was in Nigeria in June 2006 for the 50th anniversary celebrations of the formation of the Nigerian Navy. As part of the celebrations there was a Fleet Review by President Olusegun Obasanjo.^[5] On 6 October she, along with Royal Navy frigate HMS Argyll and Royal Marines from 40 Commando, seized more than two tonnes of cocaine during a major drugs haul off the coast of West Africa. The illegal drugs, which were found in an unregistered vessel, had a UK street value of some £60 million.

Gold Rover was part of a Royal Navy amphibious task group, the VELA Deployment 06, en route to Sierra Leone where she and other ships were taking part in a major amphibious exercise. Whilst on the way to West Africa Gold Rover was contributing to the global fight against terrorism and the Royal Navy's maritime security operations activity.

Gold Rover entered refit in the middle of 2013.^[6] Gold Rover departed her home port for her last operational deployment in 2014.^[7]

Rover participated the 200 year celebrations of Napoleon arrival on St Helena after his capture at the Battle of Waterloo on the 12th to the 16th of October 2015 ^[8] along with HMS Lancaster

In 2015, she participated in Operation UNITAS.^[9]

References

External links

• RFA Gold Rover at royalnavy.mod.uk

Current Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships
Tankers	Wave class Wave Knight Wave Ruler Rover class Black Rover Gold Rover Tide class (From 2016) Tidespring Tiderace Tidesurge Tideforce
Replenishment ships	Fort Rosalie class Fort Austin Fort Rosalie Fort Victoria class Fort Victoria
Landing ship docks	Bay class Cardigan Bay Lyme Bay Mounts Bay
Other vessels	Aviation training/ casualty-receiving ships Argus Forward repair ships Diligence