RFA Mounts Bay is a auxiliary landing ship dock (LSD(A)) of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She is named after Mount's Bay in Cornwall. As of 2024, Mounts Bay is the principal vessel assigned to the Royal Navy's Littoral Response Group (North).

Design and construction

The Bay class was designed as a replacement for the Round Table-class logistics ships operated by the RFA. The ships were originally designated "Auxiliary Landing Ship Logistics" or ALSL, but this was changed in 2002 to "Landing Ship Dock (Auxiliary)" or LSD(A), better reflecting their operational role. Four ships were ordered; two from Swan Hunter, and two from BAE Systems Naval Ships. The standard ship's company consists of 60 officers and sailors. She was launched on 9 April 2004, although it took several attempts to christen the ship, and she received damage after becoming entangled in chains and 25-ton weights during the actual launching. Mounts Bay was dedicated on 13 July 2006, the first Bay-class ship to enter service with the RFA.

In early 2012, she joined the aircraft carrier and fleet flagship to participate in Exercise ‘Joint Warrior’ and other training missions with warships from the United States, Norway and the Netherlands.

On Armed Forces Day 2012, 30 June, she fired the salute in Plymouth as she steamed past , with the Earl of Wessex and the First Sea Lord on board.

Mounts Bay is scheduled to depart for Exercise COUGAR 2013, with Viking armoured vehicles on board.

In January 2016, she set sail for the Mediterranean, carrying the new Governor of Gibraltar, Ed Davis. She has further been deployed to the Aegean Sea to help NATO forces deal with the European migrant crisis. Mounts Bay docked at Gibraltar for one month of repairs.

On 19 May 2016 she was deployed to assist in the search for the missing EgyptAir flight MS804 in the Mediterranean between Crete and Egypt. By June 2016 she was tasked to the European Union's Operation Sophia to target Daesh gun and people traffickers.

After undertaking maintenance in Falmouth in March 2017, Mounts Bay deployed to the Caribbean to provide support during the 2017 hurricane season. She was tasked to assist in HADR operations at Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in September 2017 obtaining widespread media coverage.

In September 2019, Mounts Bay delivered essential supplies to the Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Dorian.

In March 2022, Mounts Bay participated in Cold Response 2022, a multinational NATO military exercise in Norway occurring biennially.

In August 2024, Mounts Bay was reported to have deployed to the Mediterranean to replace RFA Cardigan Bay stationed there in the context of the Gaza war and which was returning to the U.K. for refit. In late 2024, Mounts Bay herself returned to the U.K. to undergo refit planned to start in January 2025. She was reported as laid-up in Falmouth due to "treasury constraints" as of 2025 but as of April 2026 was reported to be fully crewed and completing maintenance to permit her reactivation.

Citations

References

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  • Official Royal Navy page