The Ministry of Defence has declined to confirm the operational status of RFA Fort Victoria, saying only that the ship will be regenerated in accordance with defence needs, the department has said in response to parliamentary questions.
Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, asked two questions of the department: what assessment had been made of the additional crewing required to bring Fort Victoria back into operational service, and what the ship’s operational status and future are.
Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard answered:
“The RFA operates platforms in accordance with the defence priorities. RFA Fort Victoria will be regenerated in accordance with defence needs,” the minister said. “To protect the operational security of the Fleet, I am unable to confirm the exact operational status of individual vessels.” Pollard then said the RFA is “an indispensable part of Defence,” thanking its seafarers for their support to defence outputs.
Fort Victoria, which entered service in 1994, is the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s only solid support ship, able to transfer ammunition, food and stores to warships at sea alongside fuel, a capability on which sustained carrier strike operations depend. The ship supported the first operational deployment of the Carrier Strike Group in 2021, but has been laid up at Birkenhead in recent years amid the RFA’s crewing shortages, and did not accompany the 2025 carrier deployment to the Indo-Pacific, which relied on allied support vessels for solid stores. Her eventual replacement will come through the Fleet Solid Support programme, under which three ships are being built by the Navantia UK-owned Harland and Wolff yards, with the first not expected in service until the early 2030s.
The formulation used in the answers has a recent history as many readers will be aware. Under the previous government, ministers repeatedly stated that the amphibious assault ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark, held at reduced readiness with minimal crews, could be regenerated if required for defence needs. Neither ship returned to sea, and both were retired in November 2024.
The answers came by chance on the same day the department told Parliament that RFA recruitment is improving, with applications at a five-year high, overall strength stabilising and voluntary outflow reducing between January 2025 and January 2026, while acknowledging that the service has faced sustained recruitment and retention challenges driven in part by competition with the commercial maritime sector.
‘Regenerated’ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Makes sense to keep the ships status as vague as possible until the Resurgent is ready. However the fact that we have managed global deployments with just one very old ship suggest we don’t have a need for 3 Resurgent class vessels and the funds would be better used else where especially in amphibious vessels.
What Global depolyments? A carrier every four years, no SSN’s, broken down frigates, a destroyer now and again…..
That very old ship hadn’t been involved in those deployments….
I thought it did accompany the first one?
I wouldn’t be surprised if CSG 2029 is cancelled. These long distance CSG trips are a huge drain on our resources, and for what? Protecting us from Putin is much more important.
And anyway, the US would deal with a Pacific emergency, and leave the RN and the Marine Nationale to cover European waters, where there are plenty of ports to put in to to replenish. There would have to be a lot of …. hitting a lot of fans for the RN to go to war outside NATO areas.
Remember the dribble released by ministers has been written by the same officals who wrote for the previous ministers. At least that provides continuity in evasion.