Royal Navy: Saving for the big chunks

Update from 12/07/2022

At the beginning of July, Whitehall in London confirmed that RFA Argus is to remain in service with the Royal Navy until after 2030 after all. Contrary to what was initially planned for financial reasons (and repeatedly brought up for discussion in difficult budget situations), RFA Argus is not yet to take down its Blue Ensign and hand it over in 2024. She will continue to serve as the first reception centre for injured and wounded on Royal Navy operations.

Future Multi Role Support Ship of the Royal Navy from 2030. Graphic: mbt.org

But the brainstorming continues. At present, the new Multi-Role Support Ships (MRSS) of the ELLIDA project - three of which are currently being discussed for procurement at the beginning of 2030 - are to be used for floating medical care and disaster relief in addition to supply tasks. However, they could also take over the tasks of the then 25-year-old amphibious assault ships HMS Albion and Bulwark (19,000 tonnes) as well as the three equally old Bay-class dock landing ships RFAs Lyme Bay, Mounts Bay and Cardigan Bay (16,000 tonnes) by expanding the construction programme to six units. More and smaller ships is the motto. Don't put all your eggs in one basket!

RFA Argus is a real "mission junkie". Built 40 years ago in Italy and requisitioned by the Ministry of Defence for the Falklands War in 1982, she was returned to her owners after her deployment. Following modifications, she was a training ship for helicopter pilot training from 1984 to 1988 and was equipped with a hospital facility for the first Gulf War in 1991 as a Primary Casualty Receiving Ship, which was further expanded in 2007. After the Gulf War, it was deployed to Bosnia (1993), Kosovo (1999), Sierra Leone (2001), Kuwait (2003) during the second Gulf War and again to Sierra Leone (2014) to provide military support in the fight against Ebola.

HMS Protector, the Ice Patrol Ship of the Royal Navy. Photo: Crown Copyright

After a maintenance phase in Falmouth (2022), she re-qualified for roles as a hospital and pilot training ship and was probably intended to go to the Caribbean as a disaster relief ship for this year's hurricane season, before the Ice Patrol Ship HMS Protector was finally chosen for this task ( . . . when the polar ice caps melt!).

For RFA Argus, which has provided the British taxpayer with an unbeatable return on investment, it will become increasingly difficult to find the right spare parts for her increasingly complex maintenance as the ship ages - at the end of her planned service life, she will have almost 50 years under her keel.

Original article from June 2022

HMS Scott leaving Falmouth. Photo: Crown Copyright

After the two aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales (65,000 tonnes) and the two large dock landing ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark (19,000 tonnes), HMS Scott, with a displacement of 14,000 tonnes, is the fifth largest ship in the Royal Navy to sail under the White Ensign, the white naval ensign of the United Kingdom. The hydrographic research vessel with the hull number H131 has just come out of a short but intensive three-month repair phase in Falmouth/Cornwall and is now due to set sail on another 14-month survey campaign following shipyard trials and operational training. This comes after she returned from a 9-month data collection campaign in the North Atlantic in March this year. During these research trips with a military mission, areas of 500,000 square kilometres are surveyed, which is roughly the size of the Iberian Peninsula. So it seems that Her Majesty's hydrographers have some catching up to do when it comes to updating maritime information. Nevertheless, there are still indications that the 25-year-old ship will soon be out of service.

RFA Fort Victoria. Photo: Crown Copyright

Further cancellations

Two other "fat ships" are on the decommissioning list of the British Senior Service, although they belong to the Auxiliaries and therefore sail under the Blue Ensign: the 37,000-tonne fleet supply ship RFA Fort Victoria and the 27,000-tonne hospital/injury admission ship RFA Argus.

The piquant thing is that for the time being, no replacement has been planned in the defence budget for any of the three capabilities that will be lost. Under the immense financial pressure of operating two aircraft carriers and a renewal programme for the nuclear-powered Dreadnought-class strategic submarines, the Royal Navy is obviously losing the broad portfolio of a fleet that operates worldwide, as it likes to claim. It goes without saying that this is not the Navy's wish - but even in the island kingdom, the Defence Committee (House of Commons Defence Committee) ultimately had the power of disposition over the distribution of British pounds. The parliamentary committee made its decision just before Christmas - which must have been a "Christmas dinner without crackers and pudding" for the Navy!