Following her decommissioning from Royal Navy service on 27 March 2018, she arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 25 August 2018,[8] with the intention of being commissioned as Atlântico and fully operational by 2020.

That VSEL's bid was £71 million lower than Swan Hunter's was the source of political controversy and led to a National Audit Office investigation to determine whether the competition was fair.

VSEL's decision to sub-contract the build phase took advantage of lower overheads at a civilian yard as well as efficiency drives by its parent, Kværner.

9 ASRM is divided into a HQ unit, Landing Craft Troop, Signals detachment, Vehicle Deck Party and Assault Supply Team.

[19] HMS Ocean was also capable of limited anti-submarine warfare activities, supporting afloat training and acting as a base facility for other embarked forces including counter-terrorism units.

[22] Weeks after being commissioned, Ocean was undertaking the warm water element of her first-of-class trials, when she was deployed on short notice to the coasts of Honduras and Nicaragua to provide humanitarian assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch.

[25] On 17 February 2002, whilst under command of Captain Adrian Johns, a unit of Royal Marines from Ocean accidentally landed on the San Felipe beach in the Spanish town of La Linea instead of Gibraltar, causing a minor diplomatic incident as various media outlets labelled the mistake as an "invasion".

[26] Ocean was the flagship and spearpoint of a large Royal Navy task force deployed for Operation Telic, the UK contribution to the 2003 Iraq War, for which she was awarded a new battle honour "Al Faw 2003".

[28] In the summer of 2006, under the command of Captain Christopher Clayton, the ship was deployed as part of the task force involved in the Aurora exercises on the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Following this major period of maintenance and upgrading work, Ocean sailed from Plymouth on Wednesday 24 September 2008 to start sea trials.

She was joined on this deployment by the landing platform dock Bulwark, as the flagship of the group, which included Type 23 Frigates Argyll and Somerset and four ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

In June 2009, Ocean took part in exercise Bersama Shield with HMS Somerset and RFA Wave Ruler off the Malay Peninsula.

[39] In May 2011, she was detached from CATG's COUGAR 11 deployment and sent with embarked Apaches to aid operations in Libya along with the attack helicopters aboard the French amphibious assault ship Tonnerre (L9014).

[46] On 4 May 2012, she moored at Greenwich to prepare for her role of providing logistics support, accommodation and a helicopter landing site during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

On 22 July 2014, Ocean took over the helicopter carrier role again, after her 15-month, £65 million refit, replacing Illustrious, which then returned to her home port Portsmouth for the last time, being decommissioned on 28 August 2014.

[58] The core task group included the LSD RFA Mounts Bay (L3008), MOD strategic Ro-Ro vessel MV Eddystone and HMS Bulwark (L15).

During the deployment she steamed 23,000 miles, visited 11 countries, provided a platform for six British ambassadors and High Commissioners and was home to up to 1150 service personnel.

At the end of August 2017, Ocean left Devonport for her final deployment, scheduled to take over as Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 flagship in the Mediterranean.