[holding answer 22 February 2010]: Royal Fleet Auxiliary Largs Bay departed for Haiti on 3 February carrying 595 linear metres of relief supplies and equipment, including the required cargo handling and beach landing capabilities. This represents approximately 60 per cent. of the capacity available. Residual space is required to assist with the movement of supplies and equipment within the cargo hold in anticipation of changing disbursement priorities on arrival.
The operational considerations about which supplies and equipment to take included an assessment of materials that could be ordered and delivered in time to ensure that the most urgently required aid would get to Haiti. The priority was items not easily transported by air but critical to the immediate humanitarian relief effort. These include fork lift trucks, four-wheel drive vehicles and corrugated sheeting.
In addition to delivering relief supplies, RFA Largs Bay has also been deployed to provide specialised capabilities to assist with the wider United Nations-led relief effort in Haiti. Delaying departure to allow supplies to be delivered for loading needed to be balanced with the urgency of getting the ship to the vicinity of Haiti to unload and begin these wider tasks.