Royal Fleet Auxiliary

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a civilian-manned fleet owned by the British Ministry of Defence. The RFA enables ships of the United Kingdom Royal Navy to maintain operations around the world. Its primary role is to supply the Royal Navy with fuel, ammunition and supplies, normally by replenishment at sea (RAS). It also transports Army and Royal Marine personnel, as well as supporting training exercises.

The RFA counts a forward repair ship and landing vessels amongst its assets. RFA personnel are members of the Ministry of Defence civil service who wear Merchant Navy rank insignia with naval uniforms and are under naval discipline when the vessel is engaged on warlike operations. RFA vessels are commanded and crewed by these civilians, augmented with regular and reserve Royal Navy personnel to perform specialised military functions such as operating and maintaining helicopters or providing hospital facilities. The RFA is funded out of the UK defence budget and the Commodore commanding the RFA is directly responsible to the Royal Navy Commander-in-Chief Fleet (CINCFLEET).

History
The RFA was first established in 1905 to provide coaling ships for the Navy in an era when the change from sail to coal-fired steam engines as the main means of propulsion meant that a network of bases around the world with coaling facilities or a fleet of ships able to supply coal were necessary for a fleet to operate away from its home country. Since the Royal Navy of that era possessed the largest network of bases around the world of any fleet, the RFA at first took a relatively minor role.

The RFA firstly became heavily relied on by the Royal Navy during World War II, when the British fleet was often far from available bases, either due to the enemy capturing such bases, or, in the Pacific, because of the sheer distances involved. WWII also saw naval ships staying at sea for much longer periods than had been the case since the days of sail. Techniques of Replenishment at Sea (RAS) were developed. The auxiliary fleet comprised a diverse collection, with not only RFA ships, but also commissioned warships and merchantmen as well. The need for the fleet to be maintained was unambiguously demonstrated by WWII.

After 1945, the RFA became the Royal Navy's main source of support in the many conflicts that the Navy was involved in. The RFA performed important service to the Far East Fleet off Korea from 1950 until 1953, when sustained carrier operations were again mounted in Pacific waters. During the extended operations of the Konfrontasi in the 1960s, the RFA was also heavily involved. As the network of British bases overseas shrank during the end of the Empire, the Navy increasingly relied on the RFA to supply its ships during routine deployments.

The RFA played an important role in the largest naval war since 1945, the Falklands War in 1982 (where one vessel was lost and another badly damaged), and also the Gulf War, Kosovo War, Afghanistan Campaign and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In July, 2008, the RFA was presented with a Queen's Colour, an honour unique to a civilian organisation.

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 four new tankers have been ordered from DSME, South Korea with design support from the UK's BMT Defence Services. They have been allocated the names TIDEFORCE, TIDERACE, TIDESPRING and TIDESURGE.

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. In 2007 she underwent a major refit intended to extend her operational life for ten years. 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.

Active ships
As of 2012, there are 13 ships in service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. In addition, a further 6 Point class sealift ships are available to the MoD under a long term Private Finance Initiative. The total displacement of the RFA is approximately 290,000 tonnes. The displacement of the 6 point class is approximately 140,000 tonnes. In February 2012 it was announced that four Tide-class tankers had been ordered by the MoD.

The ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary contribute to the available seagoing assets of the Royal Navy and augments its amphibious warfare capabilities through its three Bay-class landing ships.