RFA Sir Percivale (L3036)
|
|
| |
| Career |  
|
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | May 1966 |
| Launched: | October 4 1967 |
| Commissioned: | March 23 1968 |
| Decommissioned: | 17 August 2004 |
| Fate: | |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 5,674 tonnes |
| Length: | 125.5 metres |
| Beam: | 18.2 metres |
| Draught: | 3.9 metres |
| Propulsion: | Two ten-cylinder four-stroke turbo-charged Mirrlees National diesels (9,400hp) plus one 400hp bowthruster |
| Speed: | 16 knots |
| Range: | 8,000 miles at 15 knots |
| Complement: | 51 |
| Armament: | Four Oerlikon 20 mm guns Four 7.62mm machine guns |
| Aircraft: | One spot for Westland Sea King or Westland Lynx aft, one spot for CH-47 Chinook, Sea King or Lynx on main vehicle deck |
| Motto: | |
RFA Sir Percivale (L3036) is a Round Table class Landing Ship Logistics. It was originally commissioned into British Army service in 1968, but was taken over by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary along with the other members of the class in 1970. The first twelve years of the ship's life were quiet, with some time spent in the Pacific, until the Falklands War broke out in April 1982. Along with all the Navy's other amphibious assault shipping, Sir Percivale went south to participate in the recapture of the Falkland Islands. Unlike the Sir Galahad,Sir Tristram and Sir Lancelot, the ship emerged unscathed from the conflict.
The ship also served in the Gulf War in 1991 and twice deployed to the Adriatic to support British operations in the Balkans. In 1996 Sir Percivale took part in combined exercises with Jordan, followed by Green Wader 96, the first exercise of the then newly formed Amphibious Squadron of the Joint Rapid Deployment Force. In 1997, the ship took part in the large Ocean Wave 97 deployment to the far east and was present for the handover of Hong Kong to the Chinese. Following this ceremony, Sir Percivale escorted the ships of the former Hong Kong Squadron to their new owners in the Philippines. During other parts of Ocean Wave, the ship took Royal Marines to Brunei, Singapore and Thailand for various exercises. 1998 saw further exercises as Sir Percivale took part in practice amphibious assaults in Norway, France and Spain.
In 2000, Sir Percivale was deployed to Sierra Leone to support British forces training the army of that country. In September 2000, the ship was alongside in Freetown when British forces who had been taken hostage were rescued in a raid by the Parachute Regiment and the SAS. Since then the ship has been deployed during operations connected with Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
The ship was to have a SLEP overhaul, but an equivalent overhaul of Sir Bedivere proved so costly that plans were abandoned and new ships were procured instead.
Sir Percivale was decommissoned on 17 August 2004.
| Round Table-class landing ship logistics |
| Sir Lancelot | Sir Bedivere | Sir Galahad | Sir Geraint | Sir Percivale | Sir Tristram |
| List of amphibious assault ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary |