equipment / SHIPS
CASUALTY Ships
A Casualty Receiving Ship with a fully equipped hospital, this ship also provides aviation training facilities - making it a valuable asset in critical care and the education of the Navy’s future pilots.
Primary casualty receiving ship
Displacement
28,081 tonnes
Length
175.1 metres
Speed
18 knots
Range
20,000 nautical miles
A hospital on water
The Royal Navy’s Casualty ‘Class’ consists of just one vessel, RFA Argus. The primary role of this ship is to receive and treat casualties and for this purpose it has a fully-equipped, 100-bed hospital complete with a four-bay operating theatre, ten-bed critical care unit, 20-bed high dependency unit and a CT scanner.
Armed for protection
RFA Argus comes equipped with Oerlikon 30mm guns and hand-operated mounts carrying Oerlikon KAA200 automatic cannons (that can fire 1,000 rounds per minute at a range of 2,000 metres) for protection. As such, she cannot be classified as a hospital ship under the Geneva Convention and thus does not display the International Red Cross symbol.
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