RFA ''Sir Galahad'' (L3005) was a

landing ship logistics ''Landing ship logistics'' (LSL) was a term used by the United Kingdom armed forces to describe the Round Table class landing ship logistics, Round Table class of Amphibious assault ship, landing ship used in the support of amphibious warfare m ...

(LSL) of the

Royal Fleet Auxiliary The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service and provides logistical and operational support to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. The RF ...

, later in service with the

Brazilian Navy The Brazilian Navy () is the navy, naval service branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces, responsible for conducting naval warfare, naval operations. The navy was involved in War of Independence of Brazil#Naval action, Brazil's war of independence ...

as the ''Garcia D'Avila''.

Construction and design

''Sir Galahad'' was ordered on 6 September 1984 to a design by the shipbuilder

Swan Hunter Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England. At its apex, the company represented the combined forces of three pow ...

, as a replacement for the landing ship of the same name that had been sunk in the 1982

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

. The ship was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one ...

at Swan Hunter's

Wallsend Wallsend () is a town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England, at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. It has a population of 43,842 and lies east of Newcastle upon Tyne. History Roman Wallsend In Roman times, this was the site of the fort of ...

shipyard on 12 July 1985, was launched on 13 December 1986 and completed on 19 July 1987, entering service on 7 December that year. The ship was

long overall Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, and is also u ...

and

between perpendiculars Length between perpendiculars (often abbreviated as p/p, p.p., pp, LPP, LBP or Length BPP) is the length of a ship along the summer load line from the forward surface of the stem, or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the ster ...

, with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Radio beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially lo ...

of and a draught of at full load and light.

Displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

was light and full load. The ship was powered by two Mirrlees Blackstone K9 Major

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

s, rated at a total of which drove two propeller shafts, giving a speed of . The ship had a range of .

Service

RFA ''Sir Galahad'' was built by

and entered service in 1988. She was named and given the identical

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

to the ''Sir Galahad'' sunk in the

. Built as a combined landing craft and ferry with two flight decks for helicopters and bow and stern doors, there was capacity for around 400 troops and 3,440 tonnes of supplies. She was deployed in 1991 for Operation Granby, 1995 in Angola Operation Chantress and in 2003 for

Operation Telic Operation Telic (Op TELIC) was the codename under which all of the United Kingdom's military operations in Iraq were conducted between the start of the invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 and the withdrawal of the last remaining British forces on ...

to transport supplies. In 2003 ''Sir Galahad'' transported humanitarian aid, docking in

Umm Qasr Port Umm Qasr Port is Iraq's only deep water port, part of the city of Umm Qasr. Iraq's second biggest port in scale of size and goods shipped, ranking behind the port of Basra, it is strategically important, located on the western edge of the al-Faw p ...

on 28 March 2003, after being delayed while

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel mine, anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose launched naval depth charges, they are ...

s were cleared. On 26 April 2007, it was announced that she was to be purchased by

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. On 20 July 2006, the ship sailed from

Marchwood Marchwood is a village and civil parish located in Hampshire, England. It lies between Totton and Hythe on the western shore of Southampton Water and directly east of the New Forest. The population of the village in the 2011 census was 6, ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

, to be decommissioned. She was commissioned into the

as ''Navio de Desembarque de Carros de Combate (NDCC) "Garcia D'Avila"'' on 4 December 2007. In Brazilian service, she was responsible for transporting vehicles and supplies to

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

in support of

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

peacekeepers deployed in Haiti during

MINUSTAH The United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (), also known as MINUSTAH, an acronym of its French name, was a UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti from 2004 to 2017. It was composed of 2,366 military personnel and 2,533 police, supported by int ...

. In June 2019 it was announced than the ship will be decommissioned on 29 October 2019. On 20 February 2024, the Brazilian Navy announced the former RFA Sir Galahad will be used to conduct SINKEX as a target for two helicopter-launched Penguin MK2 MOD7 missiles and a submarine-launched Mk48 torpedo.

Gallery

Image:US_Navy_030328-N-3783H-279_The_Royal_Fleet_Auxiliary,_Landing_Ship_Logistic_RFA_Sir_Galahad_(L_3005)_arrives_in_the_Iraqi_port_city_of_Umm_Qsar.jpg, RFA ''Sir Galahad'' arrives in the Iraqi port city of

Umm Qasr Umm Qasr (, also transliterated as ''Um-qasir'', ''Um-qasser, Um Qasr. Kurdish: ئومقەسڕ, Ûmqêsir'') is a port city in southern Iraq. It stands on the canalised Khawr az-Zubayr, part of the Khawr Abd Allah estuary which leads to the P ...

on 28 March 2003 Image:RFA Sir Galahad 2003.jpg, RFA ''Sir Galahad'' in Umm Qasr, delivering the first shipment of humanitarian aid from Coalition forces. Image:RFA Sir Galahad L3005.jpg, RFA Sir Galahad in 2003. Image:NDCC Garcia D'Avila (G-29).jpg, Ex RFA ''Sir Galahad'' (G-29) in 2007. Image:Garcia D'Avila in Port-au-Prince.jpg, NDCC ''Garcia D'Ávila'' unloading an APC during

, 2013.

Citations

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sir Galahad Galahad (1987) Ships built on the River Tyne 1986 ships Round Table-class landing ships logistics of the Brazilian Navy Ships built by Swan Hunter