Royal Fleet Auxiliary - Fleet

Fleet

Ships in RFA service carry the prefix RFA, standing for Royal Fleet Auxiliary, and wear the Blue Ensign defaced with an upright gold killick anchor. All Royal Fleet Auxiliaries are built and maintained to Lloyd's Register and Department for Transport standards. Most RFA ships are armed, typically with at least two 20 mm GAM-B01 anti-aircraft guns and a number of 7.62 mm L7 GPMGs.

The most important role provided by the RFA is replenishment at sea (RAS), therefore the mainstay of the current RFA fleet are the tankers and replenishment ships. There are three classes of tankers (oilers), one of combined oiler / replenisher and one class of replenisher in service. The new fast fleet tankers of the Wave class, the small fleet tankers of the Rover class and the support tankers of the Leaf class provide under way refuelling facilities to the RN. The Leaf class are occasionally tasked with the bulk movement of oil between terminals and MoD facilities. The Rover and Leaf classes are nearing the end of their active lives and will soon be due for replacement. Furthermore, their single hulls mean that they can't support operations in the Caribbean and Persian Gulf. The two classes will be replaced by four tankers (originally six), to be ordered in 2012 under the Military Afloat Reach and Sustainability programme (MARS).

The Fort Victoria class are "one-stop" replenishment oilers, capable of supplying refuelling, rearming and victualling services while the older Fort Rosalie class provide only rearming and victualling of "dry" cargoes.

The Wave and both the Fort classes have generous aviation facilities, providing aviation support and training facilities and significant VERTREP (vertical replenishment) capabilities. The Fort class ships are capable of operating and supporting up to four helicopters such as the Royal Navy's Merlin and Lynx. Modern naval helicopters are significant weapons platforms, the presence of aviation facilities on RFA ships allows for them to be used as 'force multipliers' for the task groups they support in line with Royal Navy doctrine.

The RFA is also tasked with a role supporting British amphibious operations and so contains the three Bay class Landing Ship Dock (LSD).

Two unique support ships in the fleet are the repair vessel Diligence and the aviation training ship Argus. Both of these ships are converted former merchantmen. Diligence is a former North Sea oil industry support ship tasked with fleet repairs and maintenance. Argus, a converted roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) container ship, is tasked with peacetime aviation training and support. On active operations, she becomes the Primary Casualty Receiving Ship (PCRS); essentially a hospital ship. She cannot be described as such - and is not afforded such protection under the Geneva Convention - as she is armed. She can, however, venture into waters too dangerous for a normal hospital ship. Argus completed a refit in May 2007 intended to extend her operational life to 2020.

Recently, two fast sealift ships were also in the fleet, Sea Crusader and Sea Centurion. They were merchant Ro-Ro ships chartered as a stopgap measure to increase the strategic lift of the RFA, enabling faster deployment of British forces. Sea Centurion was returned to its owners in 2002 and Sea Crusader in 2003, after performing cargo hauling duties for the campaign in Iraq. They have been replaced by newly built Point class vessels operated under a Private Finance Initiative; these vessels will be ordinary merchant ships leased to the Ministry of Defence as and when needed, and not in the RFA.