FDR – Maritime Logistics #2
Possibly less contentious than previous articles on the surface fleet and submarine fleet, this article aims to highlight the parlous state of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. The RFA supports not just the navy in its global roles and deployments, but also in various indirect fashions it supports the army and the RAF, by transporting various stores and munitions. Although the Army is currently engaged in a land locked area of operations, a lot of its kit was supplied to Iraq by sea, and they really should remember that both Lord Wellington and Field Marshall Montgomery relied upon, and were indeed big fans of sea borne logistics.
The RFA carries out these important logistical tasks with a very old and dwindling fleet. The 4 Bay Class landing ships and the two Knight class ‘Fast Fleet Tankers’ are the only ‘new’ ships in the flotilla.
The official RFA pages on the RN web site provides some nice info on the current flottilla including a summary page which shows the launch date, nicely illustrating the average age of these vessels:
The lot of the RFA was to be improved under the Military Afloat Reach & Sustainability (MARS) programme. There was a MARS Tankers ‘industry day’ at the MOD Bristol facility on the 4th of November 2009, as tankers are most pressing need as the current tankers do not meet modern international legislation that requires all tankers to have double hulls.
Once again I refer the reader to the excellent Navy Matters site for a good overal history of the MARS programme: http://navy-matters.beedall.com/mars.htm
Personally I think BMT Defence Services Aegir class seems to be a good “off the shelf” purchase to meet the tanker requirements, see: http://www.bmtdsl.co.uk/?/309/865/
- 2 x Aegir 10 to replace the Rover Class small fleet tankers
- 4 x Aegir 18 to replace the Leaf Class support tankers
To increase flexibility I suggest replacing the two 40,000 tonne Leaf class with four much smaller Aegir class vessels of around 18,000 tonnes. If this is too expensive, then maybe we should just go to the biggest ship builders in the world, South Korea, and pick up a Hyundai !
Replacing the two AOR’s or multi-role replenishment ships of the Fort Victoria class (at 31.5K tonnes, bigger than the Invincible class carriers) is more complex. These very large ships are tankers, dry stores (food etc) and armament ships. They were originally planned to have VL Sea Wolf and can carry 4 large Merlin or Sea King size helicopters. So in this case largest vessels of the Aegir class the Aegir 18R are considerably smaller at 17,000 tonnes, but they might be big enough.
Also, and this is my only space to get contentious in this article, the two dry stores support ships RFA Fort Grange and Fort Austin and the additional capacity originally planned by the MARS programme (the ‘sustainability’ part) could be financed via an unusual route.
Let me explain.
Soft power, or the use of the military forces for diplomacy is key element of the RN and has been for years. Whether its the Caribbean hurricane season, or less common events such as the massive tsunami of five years ago, RFA’s (as well as the warships themselves) are invaluable for providing first on scene type aid, and for delivering additional relief supplies in the aftermath of an event.
The Italians have a model whereby other ministries finance vessels such as San Georgio class LPD’s or ocean patrol vessels, which are then operated by the Italian Navy.
So, my modest proposal would be to get the Ministry of Overseas Development (if its still called that) to pay for at least 2, but preferably 4 ‘stores support’ ships. OK then, I will settle for them paying for 2 and the RN budget paying for the other 2…..
Sticking to the theme of buying proven, off the shelf products, I would go with the Damen Schelde design picked by the Royal Netherlands Navy as its Joint Support Ship (JSS). These 28,000 tonne vessels are actually part of the same family as the Bay class landing ships. See this link for details: http://www.damennaval.com/nl/news.htm?item=11
The two ships funded by the civillian ministry might have features such as a larger hospital onboard, to facilitate further use in the ‘soft power’ role, with 1 one of them always available to fulfill the requirements of said ministry.
There might still be time to make it a joint endeavour with the Dutch, and the Canadian’s also have a requirement, which they also call the JSS which has been in limbo for years, this page is from August 2008 (and they still have not ordered anything): http://www.casr.ca/bg-joint-support-ship.htm
So, 1 for the Dutch, 2 for Canada, 4 for the UK, all procured as part of a single project – gotta be some savings in that approach surely ?
Buying 2 of these vessels with bigger hospitals means the RFA Argus could be retired from its role of Primary Casualty Receiving ship, and the JSS certainly has a large flight deck and a hanger for 6 helicopters, so maybe they could also be used in the deck landing training role.
The RFA Diligence (an old ship of mine !) continues to provide sterling service as the fleet repair ship, and although she is getting on a bit, its possible that we dont need to replace her just yet, and could hang on until better times (does anyone remember when we even had a Diving Support Vessel – HMS Challenger ?)
So, once again, if we divest our requirement for some political desire to provide jobs for shipyards, we can probably revitalize the RFA by buying off the shelf designs at reasonable prices, but that would just be too logical and easy wouldn’t it ? !
6 comments
Post your own
Euan – I am totally with your well thought out strategy for the RFA’s composition and strength.
I would still get DfID to pay for 2 x JSS with some vehicle space converted to hospital facilities AND if carriers were to be canceled or sold after construction, then 2 more as AOR.
Spitfire – as far as I know it is not on hold, but progressing slowly, hence the industry day last year, but I have not found any more up to date info.
What is the current state of the MARS program, does anyone know? Has it been put on hold?
Not a problem Jed I can’t seem to find figures for the capacity of the Leaf class which is slightly annoying as it would give a full comparison between old and what could be. If anyone can point to some figures please leave a comment, thanks :-)
I finally found some specifics for the Dutch Joint support ship; it can carry 8000m3 of F76 or Diesel fuel and 1000m3 of F44 or aviation fuel in addition it can generate 125m3 of fresh water per day. I’ve no idea about space available for dry stores but it’s seems bulk stores are kept on the ‘flex deck’ along with everything else from vehicles to helicopters so this space seems as if it would be packed during a mission. The Flex deck area I think has around 2000 lanes metres of space however I’m not completely sure about that figure. Since helicopters can be stored on the vehicle deck I’m unsure if that is where some of the helicopters are stored or if it is just an option to carry additional helicopter over and above the 6. Basically it’s a multipurpose ship and has the same fuel capacity as the Aegir 10 but has substantial space for vehicles helicopters or whatever else you can fit into a large space which is quite handy. The fuel capacity is nowhere near large enough to a carrier for example CVF carries over 8000t’s of fuel and a cubic meter of fuel weighs a little less than one tonne so the JSS really does not have enough fuel to support a deployed CVF. I would guess it is enough for deploying a frigate and an OPV basically what the Dutch plan to do with it which is good for them.
I’m not against a JSS type ship but we really need proper dedicated AOE’s for supporting carrier groups wherever they may end up being deployed and even if the carriers are not busy these ships will not be idle. I think we should get two proper “one stop shop” type ships based off the Aegir 26 with a large amount of fuel and a large amount of space for dry stores alongside the enhanced propulsion and self defence. Aviation capability should also be substantial about the same as the current fort class with the ability to support 4 Merlin sized helicopters for VERTREP or other duties. The idea is these ships stick with the carrier and her escorts while other RFA’s shuttle supplies to the AOE much like how the USN operate. That is also why I suggest getting 2 plain Aegir 26’s to act as the shuttles as our carrier will be conventional so could burn quite a bit of fuel if it ever needs to deploy at speed with its escorts. If there was the money then I would like the RFA/RN to get more Bay class type ships like the JSS but without the replenishment capabilities basically new bay’s with a hangar and aviation facilities and maybe not a wet dock. The idea being to replace the Argus as you suggested using DfiD funds basically 2 updated bays and 2 hospital equipped versions suited for humanitarian work.
I have this wee image in my head of an Aegir 18R a C2 (Absalon) and 2 C3’s deployed somewhere when something happens, the RFA doing its normal duties while the C2 provides space for equipment. A JSS could do this as well but maybe my thinking is too much towards the next naval war rather than working in semi-permissive or permissive environments. We already have the transport capabilities it brings to the Dutch Navy in the Bay and point classes although we lack aviation facilities on those ships. However Ocean will be getting replaced at some point which will provide the aviation capacity and we have LHA’s in our force thinking whereas the Dutch do not have that capability.
Euan, very many thanks for adding the cargo capacity information, it was an oversight to omit this research from the original article, so once again thanks for providing that for us all.
On the JSS – I think the design could provide the basis of the “Fast combat support ship” to replace the Fort’s as the “one stop shop” for a Carrier group. However my thinking is the design could be further levered towards that multi-role RFA that provides soft power presence at a much cheaper price than a full on warship. The Haiti disaster relief role, the anti-drug and anti-piracy patrols – think of a Bay with a hanger and some wet RAS as well as dry stores capability. In the end we will be lucky if they don’t completely screw the RFA with this “privatisation” non-sense….. :-(
First point I should make here is about the fact that the RFA really is a Tri service bunch the Army need them to move bulky equipment around the world and the RAF need them to haul ammo. The Royal Navy of course needs fuel, ammo and other supplies supplied at sea anywhere In the world. Hopefully the 3 services realise this and point this pout to the MoD or whoever when it comes time to fiddle around with the RFA but I doubt they will. I fully support the choice of the Aegir class as they were essentially designed for the MARS program so it seems reasonable to choose that family. I think the Aegir class are big enough as it’s the differences between what is meant by Deadweight and full load etc that fudges things. The Fort class are around 32,000t’s full load whereas the Aegir 18 is 17,000t’s deadweight. The Fort Victoria class carry 12,500 cubic metres of liquids compared to the Aegir 18R’s 12,000m3 of Diesel, 1,800m3 of Aviation Fuel and 800m3 of Fresh Water. The Fort Victoria class carries 2,500m3 of dry stores whereas the Aegir 18R has 1000m2 of cargo deck space I presume internally and also has space for 8 reefers. So similar in capacity although the Aegir lacks the aviation facilities of the Fort Victoria class which I think should be changed in the design to accommodate at least 2 Merlin. Just for comparison the Wave class carries 16,000m3 of fuel, 380m3 of fresh water and has 500m3 of dry stores it can also carry 8 reefers so the Aegir 18 is about the same whereas the R version trades fuel for dry stores.
As for the numbers of vessels I’m not really too sure as it depends on what happens in regards to the fleet numbers resulting from the FSC program. However as a shot in the dark I would suggest at least 2 Aegir 10’s to support the smaller C3’s if they turn out to be Global Corvette type vessels or simply for supporting lone warships. 6 or more Aegir 18R’s to support the general surface fleet wherever they may be deployed especially if in company with allies or in small groups such as C2’s supporting C3’s. 2 Aegir 26 class ships to essentially act as the bulk fuel movers shuttling between supply bases and the carrier supply vessels if that ever happens. 2 Larger Fast combat support ship’s for supporting the carriers essentially the real replacement for the Fort Victoria class based off the same hull as the Aegir 26 but with enhanced propulsion and defensive enhancements. That may seem like a lot of solid support due to the choice of the Aegir 18R but the modern navy will use much less fuel as demonstrated by the Type 45 during sea trials. More solid support allows for humanitarian supplies to be carried or something similar or the space could be used for holding pirates. It’s also most probably more ships than we need but it means in peacetime we can always provide support to things like SNMG’s while having the capacity in wartime.
I’m unsure about the Joint Support ship idea as I don’t have specifics in regard to issuable fuel and dry stores space although it would seem a good idea for supporting C3’s or small amphibious operations. It seems specific to what the Netherlands need a general purpose bit of everything ship that they can deploy with a Holland Class OPV in the Caribbean. Maybe these would be an alternative to the Aegir 10 as they should provide the same replenishment capacity alongside other capabilities for supporting lone warships or smaller vessels and being multirole vessels.
From the Shipbuilding point of view there is no question or doubt in my mind that these vessels should be built abroad preferably in South Korea where a contract is a contract and the yards have work. So chances are they would definitely tell the MoD and Government to take a hike if they started their usual bullshit which makes me happy:-). Going down this route should also be much cheaper and faster as the yards are used to building dozens of commercial tankers each year and the Aegir is essentially a commercially derived design. Ideally the whole lot should be placed in 2 separate contracts the second being awarded if delivery schedules and costs are kept to. I don’t say that lightly I live by the Clyde but I would rather UK yards are kept busy building warships rather than delivering obscenely overpriced Auxiliaries.
Errata:
“So, my modest proposal would be to get the Ministry of Overseas Development (if its still called that)”
Ooops – I think I meant DfID !