Its roles being a platform for Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROUVs)[9] and a testbed for new specialist capabilities, required for monitoring waters important to UK interests.

Proteus is one of two new commercial vessels acquired for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 2023, the other being RFA Stirling Castle; a mine hunting support ship to act as a mothership for autonomous minehunters.

[citation needed] Projects for which Topaz Tangaroa was deployed includes supporting the construction of the Greater Changhua offshore wind farm near Taiwan.

[14] She is equipped with a 120 tonnes (130 tons) crane as well as a hangar and workshops capable of accommodating remotely operated and other unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs).

[17][10] A formal dedication ceremony took place in London on the River Thames, in the presence of the RFA Commodore-in-Chief, Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, and Akshata Murty, wife of the incumbent Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who will be the ship's sponsor throughout its active life, with Proteus berthed alongside the Imperial War Museum's preserved Town-class light cruiser, HMS Belfast.

[18] RFA Proteus is a former offshore support vessel, Vard designed, the hull was constructed at their Tulcea shipyard in Romania and then fitted out at their Brattvåg facility in Norway, completed in 2019.

It also has a Rolls-Royce Icon Dynamic Positioning system Class II, which enables the ship to remain stationary and includes an assigned operating control which overlooks the rear working deck.

Proteus has an umbilical tether winch system, which carries the control, power and communications cables for equipment lowered, this comes from drums below decks and then up to the hangar, before connecting to the ROV through the LARS.

[10] Proteus is fitted with a multibeam echosounder (MBES) giving the ship a hydrographic capability and it has a number of work spaces available which could be used for operations rooms.