In 2015, the Ministry of Defence explored the opportunity to lease two Auxiliary Cargo and Ammunition (T-AKE) support ships from the United States.
The vessels, it turned out, could not be spared. Since then, no further discussions have taken place with allies on leasing solid support shipping for the Royal Navy.
Commenting, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence Alex Chalk, said:
“In 2015 the Ministry of Defence explored the opportunity to short term lease two Auxiliary Cargo and Ammunition (T-AKE) support ships from the United States of America, which subsequently could not be spared. Since then, no further discussions have taken place with allies on leasing solid support shipping for the Royal Navy.”
The T-AKE Support Ships
The T-AKE class of replenishment ships are a series of modern, multi-product logistics vessels operated by the United States Navy’s Military Sealift Command. These ships are designed to support the U.S. Navy’s combatant ships and provide underway replenishment of ammunition, fuel, food, and other supplies.
The T-AKE class ships have a displacement of approximately 41,000 tons and can reach speeds of up to 20 knots. They have a length of around 210 metres and a beam of approximately 32 metres, making them some of the largest auxiliary vessels in the US Navy.
The ships have a large cargo capacity, with 10 cargo holds capable of carrying up to 7.5 million cubic feet of dry, refrigerated, and frozen cargo. They also have cranes and handling equipment to support cargo transfer at sea.
What does the UK have in this role?
RFA Fort Victoria, a combined fleet stores ship and tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary of the United Kingdom, is responsible for providing essential supplies such as ammunition, fuel, and food to Royal Navy vessels operating worldwide. Currently, it is the only vessel in its class.
As part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review of 2010, the withdrawal of RFA Fort George, a sister ship, was recommended. Between March 2011 and 2013, the ship was stripped of its stores and fittings while docked in Liverpool.
The future
The Fleet Solid Support Ship Programme aims to replace these vessels with up to three fleet solid support ships, which will provide crucial underway replenishment of dry stores such as ammunition, spare parts, and supplies to Royal Navy ships.
These new ships will regularly deploy with the UK Carrier Strike Group to support the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and their escorts. All three vessels are scheduled to enter service between 2028 and 2032.
The British government proposed the construction of these ships in 2015 as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review. The subsequent National Shipbuilding Strategy outlined the government’s intentions to tender the ships internationally to encourage competitiveness with British shipyards.
However, this move drew criticism from some political parties and trade unions, who expressed concern about potential job and skill losses in British shipbuilding.
Following a competition that began in 2018, Team Resolute was awarded the contract for constructing the three vessels, with BMT Group providing the design and Harland & Wolff and Navantia UK constructing them.
The consequence of letting three tyros loose in 2010. Sine the Cameron Clegg Osborne years we have been playing catch up. This just confirms what I see.
Nothing new with this useless imbecile government, ships like rfa’s should be in numerous numbers not 12 I believe we have ,but soon that useless corrupt tory government go the better ,both tory and Labour politicians should be in jail for the traitors that they are ,a country’s defence is vital but tell that to the bean counters ,useless as they are
They might have gone a lot sooner if Labour had not elected Corbyn as leader.
A great many things that have happened over the last few years would have been different with an effective opposition.
Every so often the Labour Party seems to decide winning elections does not matter.
Without Michael Foot even the Falklands would not have saved Maggie and She and her mad economic experiments would just be remembered as a slightly longer lived version of Liz Truss.
I think that happens with both parties, I’m pretty sure the Conservative Party have decided they would rather fight over political dogma than run the country…with the Labour Party just coming out of that cycle and ready to start trying to win again.
It also looks like the Scottish nationalists party are just about to enter the same….which quite frankly may just save the Union.
True Bob,it breaks my heart to see our once proud armed forces reduced to nothing because of these bxxxxxd politicians, but Labour had better get things done in years to come as we are on borrowed time defence wise ,tories are more concerned about making profits,pandering to corruption,but defence they think oh costs money ,BRITISH TAX PAYERS MONEY whom they seem to forget who they serve not their self service ie lining up their pockets, all we can do is wait and see
Not going to happen Society is changing and their mindset is less on war and more on social care and if you happened to get threatened by a nation such as Russia, far easier to talk or even hand over what they want rather then go to war.
But hey I’m talking about a generation which believes that a 6 foot bloke (mit meat and 2 veg) can ID as a woh-man
For what its worth I think the country is sobering up. Truss was kicked out within weeks. Johnson the clown was forced out. Sturgeon has been forced out. Wise heads like Heseltine are speaking out with the truth – Brexit was a pack of lies. Corbyn has been kicked out. Labour have said they will help Sunak get a solution to the Irish protocol through parliament if the tory ERG rednecks rebel. The forces attempting to break up the UK have been defeated. The C of E will soon have to decide whether it is a Christian church or a… Read more »
I agree I think politics may just be on cycle where the sensible middle starts to drive the direction. The last piece will be the Conservative Party taking some time out to sort themselves our and we can return to a bit more consensus politics with a reasonable choice of a social Democratic Party being the party that argues for social cohesion as well as equality of opportunity and a sensible right of centre party that focuses on fiscal responsibility and opportunity for the individual ( the good British balance between two parties that can govern one after the other… Read more »
The UK may see significant constitutional change if a labour government wins at the next election. They will abolish the Lords and with it will go the seediness that characterises a system based on patronage. The Church of England will lose its automatic right to some seats for bishops. They are not important from a voting point of view but they are symbolically important – given the furore about blessing same sex marriages its likely the C of E will be disestablished. This will change the role of spiritual leadership of the sovereign and make the UK a constitutionally more… Read more »
Perhaps not changing as fast as some people think – look at what’s just happened in Scotland. Perhaps a decent sence of survival will also kick in on defence.
U sound like ur describing my cousin bertrude. 😂😂😂😂
If you want to play”what if?” How about if Labour had been a bit more grown up and elected David Miliband rather than his rather wet brother? We could have seen the return of Labour in 2015. Now there’s a thought.
shame we can’t rewrite history.
The Milliband brothers whose Marxist jewish Father sought and gained asylum in the Uk in May 1940 and who on arriving in the Uk decided to knock out this little diatribe soon after arriving in the UK: “”The Englishman is a rabid nationalist. They are perhaps the most nationalist people in the world … When you hear the English talk of this war you sometimes almost want them to lose it to show them how things are. They have the greatest contempt for the continent in general and for the French in particular. They didn’t like the French before… Read more »
Alternatively…..
“O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An’ foolish notion.”
🙂
Not much has changed then.
Taxi!
Very good point. I was not for one moment suggesting that Miliband D would have been any good or even better than Miliband E, merely that he might have given the entitled Cameron a run for his money. And I had forgotten what obnoxious views his father held so that is a timely reminder. Thank God that most of those who gained sanctuary here really appreciated what this country stood for then, and to a great extent still stands for today.
As I Scotsman I can’t comment on his thoughts of English. 😂😂😂😂
De Gaulle took sanctuary here and hated us, we can’t tell people what to think or be grateful to us for standing against Hitler. losing the empire was hard for us, we are over that now unlike the Left . milliband was right on taxing the war profiteering energy producers and insulating homes, a no brainer. new labour not afraid to go to war either, in my view wrongly, so mixed thoughts.
Yep I’ve been saying that for yrs Labour messed up big time not electing D. Miliband as leader , well should I say the Trade unionist messed up.
Yep! Took us too long to be rid of him and even this week, his name provides unlimited ammo for the Cons.
It is the education complex, media that make what people think. Most people don’t care for defence until the SHTF. So if you are searching for traitors origin start there. Your country can spent >200000£ salary for a woke advisor, are engulfed in a war about pronouns and slavery from 300 years ago despite Royal Navy having anti -slavery patrols, a government already fell because said government made male trans go to female jails and there are enormous amount of people that are only paper movers for paper moving sake. The good thing about Brexit – beside making possible the… Read more »
Basically sxxxe politicians, country stuck in the past ,bottom line your very correct ,my hat off to you sir ,
Damn so many errors there, just don’t know where to start… 🤷🏻♂️
As you seem to take great joy in criticizing the UK and at times you are totally wrong AlexS would you care to tell us/me what country you are from so I can return the favor?
Calm down son. The reason we have had the tories for so long is due to the fact Labour have let down the working and decent people of the UK by NOT being an effective alternative. Instead they have tore themselves to pieces with in fighting, stupidity, momentum, Corbyn and a third rate shadow cabinet. Labour are traitors to the working class (if that exists any longer) and have had their head up their own arses for the last 15 years.
Oh the working class still exists… but thanks to Blair (Islington champagne socialist who lied over WMDs in Iraq), then Corbyn (a Britain hating Marxist), combined with Labour’s attempts to subvert the Brexit Referendum result, they don’t see Labour as a party that supports them anymore. Which is why voters have deserted Labour, ironically to the Tories in England and to the SNP in Scotland.
Agree, I would say the working class is still there, it’s just more diverse and has a wider range of views that’s before. In the same way the middle class is no longer what you could consider a specific cultural group. In fact the two are now pretty much blurred into a continuum… is a nurse or social worker working class or middle case…. They have different lives and views to your average factory worker…but also different lives and views to your average judge. I don’t think working class, middle class and upper class work anymore… my background is working… Read more »
I didn’t know this. It shows just how stupid was the 2010 SDSR decision to decommission RFA Fort George in order to avoid the cost of a major refit that would have given her another 10+ years of service life. SDSR – pennywise and pound-foolish – taken to a dangerous extreme.
Very short sighted of the government. Penny wise and pound foolish indeed!
With the current absolute shower on both sides, I reckon I could do a far better job as PM myself.
Vote for me to get “SDSR-2025: Forces Want, Forces Get.”
They are shortsighted. How many of them are in power years later is a big problem. No incentive to make things better long term. Perhaps the lords should do long term planning and spending and parliament short term. Or something
Agreed thats the issue, zero accountability. Make stupid decision today whats the worst case in 2-3 years you wont be in the job anyways and arent accountable.
Defence really needs to be moved to a different sort of control and not something thats a political tool.
yep , that was a totally stupid decision. one of the worst, along with selling Bay number 4
Given the sunk cost in these two extremely useful ships, it was a crazy decision to get rid of them. But I’ve work on enough Business Cases for public-sector projects to know that the likes of the Treasury have no interest in money already spent. They just want to know expected future expenditure and how this can be reduced – ideally to zero. The cost of then recovering from any accepted capability gaps is also irrelevant as no expenditure for this has been formally approved – but how could it be! Alice in Wonderland stuff.
I can’t believe the 3x FSS aren’t due to enter service until 2028-2030s. Can anything be done to speed that up? Seems with just Fort Victoria left in service we are distinctly exposed and have a real nexus for failure.
You would think we could grab some from trade some we’re,things most be bad if the USA couldn’t spare 3.Thought USN had a good reserve of support ships lay up.Seem to remember only a few years back sending them over to the UK for scrap metal along the river TEES ,watch a few getting tow in myself come to think of it. 🤔
The USN has got wise to logistics and the very real need for large numbers of support ships to keep a fleet and forces sustained in the Western Pacific.
The pivot to face the Chinese threat dictates that there will be no spare shipping available from USA. That’s why we have to build our own and quickly.
Sure it’s now or never👍
Since the end of the Cold War, the USN has fallen into the same false sense of security at the RN. Friendly ports are many and wars are short now. Sustainment at sea must be a waste of money!
south africa hosting china and russian navy exercise right now, to celebrate 1 year of Ukraine war. Could that happen in other countries, brazil, india?
Arguably Fort Victoria is now the most valuable ship ‘in the fleet’ – without her both carriers are hugely limited in endurance and range.
Wow… what an absolutely cracking idea. Maybe we could ‘lease’ a couple of infantry brigades, and a couple of tank regiments as well!
So the much trumpeted re generation of Harland and Wolf by the majority of the blocks being built in the U.K appears to be is a rather large Political Con Trick ? The bow and mid sections will be built in U.K but the Stern sections will be built by Navantia in Spain. The stern section contains the engines, steering, accommodation, Bridge, comms etc etc. So all the high value Shipbuilding is not actually being built in the U.K at all, just relatively low value Metal Work and assembly. I would love to see the £1.6 billion budget broken down… Read more »
I think I read somewhere its 50% UK. I will look for the link.
ABC wrote:
I actually read that it was the other way round. I also read that part of the deal is for and I quote:
“”The MoD said the agreement will enable the transfer of Navantia’s cutting edge digital shipyard knowledge from its Cadiz yard to Harland & Wolff, supporting the modernisation of its Belfast yard.””
Which to me looks like the UK is getting Spain to upgrade H&W, meaning that they will be in good stead to build what the UK needs at home.
The Tech transfer is arguably as important as the build.
I know people who went to work at H&W a couple of years ago and rapidly got out of there as it was at the time a complete cluster. They where going through senior yard managers quicker than UK Prime Ministers.
Things are better now and with the orders confirmed there will be stability and the prospect of future work after this.
I agree, it’s a great deal..giving away a bit of work-share to get what is arguably the best ship builder in Europe to upgrade a key shipyard is worth a lot.
The details of the upgrade and machines etc will be very important to find out.
Thing is who is going to order these ships from Harland and Wolff next? Or any ships over other yards?
Is it hopeful navantia will pass work to the yard? I don’t know the set up of who is running the yard.
I assume that the RN will be making some orders as they have a bit of a list of large ships to order after these, so I would imagine there will be a good drumbeat of amphips etc over the next couple of decades.
Super Block construction would be good work as well. Construct it and ship it for assembly elsewhere.
Fingers crossed it works out well for the yard. It’s a good asset to have. I wonder if the Northern Ireland location has any benefits versus a U.K. mainland location? Like with EU trade etc. I don’t know much about the whole Ireland inside/outside the EU situation.
The glacial pace of procurement strikes again, the FSS should have been in service by 2021, the fact the concept for FSS wasn’t even considerd until 2015 is madness. I guess the delay to the bidding process didn’t help but 2028 is ridiculous and the slow pace has only increased the costs of the project in addition to the additional expense of running Fort Victoria.
HMG have missed a trick. The contract should have been signed stating delivery in the 2025-2027 timeframes eg 3 years earlier. It shouldn’t take 5 years to build the first of 3 support ships.
They are not simple ships. There is a lot of complex gear to go into them and also certification to get approved for first of class. Yes, The first one will take time. ignoring the mundane stuff like propulsion trials, steering trials etc that every ship does there is then the specialist stuff. Off the top of my head, The Cold rooms are huge so that’s a big AC/Freezer system to install and set to work. Multi deck Lifts will need to be installed and tested and cleared for moving munitions. Magazine certification for firefighting, vent, construction for the holds… Read more »
I was recently working on one of these vessels and they are huge. Massive holds with multiple decks interlinked by multiple massive center line lifts with 10’s of thousands of pounds capacity each. The flight deck is Chinook/Sea Stallion sized aircraft capable and the hangar can take a couple of helos of Sea Hawk /Sea Knight size Running from the FD up to the bow area is a covered road that allows large loads and pallets to be moved by over 20+ Forklifts from the lifts to ready use store rooms and cold rooms adjacent to each RAS point or… Read more »
Is the U.K. missing out by not including fuel storage? How can the USN do it but RFA ships won’t?
I don’t know how long a ship filled up could supply a U.K. carrier group for with dry supplies, weapons etc.
It carries around 2000 T of fuel for RAS. It’s a good extra to have availableIMO.
I share your opinion. Options are better than no options.
Currently they are all at it the Blame Game, only have to look back and we have not had a political party worthy of the country.
Boris was the only one who won his place the rest have had to beg borrow or steal the place.
Don’t forget that this contract was stopped by Local MPs and trade Unions and allowed it to slip.
Unions that are currently holding the entire country to ransom over wanting better pay for working from Home.
3 ships
So a critical capability was identified as missing, a solution was tabled and rejected, but instead of licensing the design nothing was done for years and it’s only another half decade before the first one is in service.
Such dizzying speed.