The vessel charged with keeping Britain’s aircraft carrier task groups stocked up with supplies is returning to operations after an extensive refit.
RFA Fort Victoria recently spent some time at Birkenhead’s Cammell Laird shipyard for extensive repairs and upgrades, especially on her engines, “to ready her for the front line once again ahead of a jam-packed 2023”.
Captain Martin Jones, Commanding Officer of Fort Victoria, was quoted as saying:
“It’s pleasing to get Fort Victoria back to sea after a lengthy period in the shipyard and allow her to stretch her legs. We are very much looking forward to returning to the fold of Carrier Strike and supporting Carrier Strike Group 23.”
According to a Royal Navy press release:
“The vast ship has now reached Scotland, sailing under the Forth Bridge and will soon be putting her upgrades to the test. Fort Vic’s sailors are building her up to trials – which will stress test her new bits – with the training teams at Fleet Operational Sea Training who, to very exacting standards, bring ships and their crew up to scratch ahead of deployments anywhere in the world.
The ship will then progress to Operational Sea Training in which she will be put through numerous scenarios to ensure she is ready for action. That all leads up to her returning to the heart of the Carrier Strike Group in 2023, keeping it resupplied and ready for action wherever they might sail.”
You can read more on this here.
That’s some good news.
only have one ,is a major weak point for the carrier group
Any details on the “new bits”?
Good Morning 🇬🇧, great photo, good looking ship and very good news for carrier ops.
The vast ship?
Good to have her back with the fleet. God we need the new Fleet Support Ships PDQ. The RN will have a fully operational carrier strike capability when we have the support ships available.
Birkenhead’s loss is the RFAs gain. Fort Victoria is truely onomatopoeiac. 👍