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| Ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary |
A - B - C - D - E - F - G Contents |
| Amphibious warfare ships |
| Replenishment ships |
| Miscellaneous ships |
The following is a list of Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship names by name in alphabetical order, both past and present. Many of the names have been re-used over the years and thus represent more than one ship.
1595 (MDXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar, the 1595th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 595th year of the 2nd millennium, the 95th year of the 16th century, and the 6th year of the 1590s decade. As of the start of 1595, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service and provides logistical and operational support to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. The RFA ensures the Royal Navy is supplied and supported by providing fuel and stores through replenishment at sea, transporting Royal Marines and British Army personnel, providing medical care and transporting equipment and essentials around the world. In addition the RFA acts independently providing humanitarian aid, counter piracy and counter narcotic patrols together with assisting the Royal Navy in preventing conflict and securing international trade. They are a uniformed civilian branch of the Royal Navy staffed by British merchant sailors. The RFA is one of five RN fighting arms.
This is a list of the naval forces from the United Kingdom that took part in the Falklands War, often referred to as "the Task Force" in the context of the war. For a list of naval forces from Argentina, see Argentine naval forces in the Falklands War.
RFA Grey Rover (A269) was a Rover-class small fleet tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA). She was decommissioned in 2006.
The British Pacific Fleet (BPF) was a Royal Navy formation that saw action against Japan during the Second World War. It was formed from aircraft carriers, other surface warships, submarines and supply vessels of the RN and British Commonwealth navies in November 1944.
RFA Salvestor (A499) was a King Salvor-class salvage vessel of the post war Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
RFA Sea Salvor (A503) was a salvage vessel of the post-war Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She also served as a support ship for Mine Counter Measures vessels.
RFA Cedardale (A380) was a Dale-class fleet tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was originally one of two ships which were purchased by the British Admiralty from the Anglo Saxon Petroleum Co for evaluation purposes. Cedardale was decommissioned on 15 November 1959 and laid up at Hong Kong.
Swan Hunter, formerly known as Swan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, is a shipbuilding design, engineering, and management company, based in Wallsend, Tyne and Wear, England.
In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number. Historically, naval ships flew a flag that identified a flotilla or type of vessel. For example, the Royal Navy used a red burgee for torpedo boats and a pennant with an H for torpedo boat destroyers. Adding a number to the type-identifying flag uniquely identified each ship.
The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of England; the RAC was founded after Charles II ascended to the English throne in the 1660 Stuart Restoration, and he granted it a monopoly on all English trade with Africa. While the company's original purpose was to trade for gold in the Gambia River, as Prince Rupert of the Rhine had identified gold deposits in the region during the Interregnum, the RAC quickly began trading in slaves, which became its largest commodity.
These are some of the key weapons of the Falklands War used by both sides.
The Commander United Kingdom Strike Force is a senior post in the Royal Navy.
The Rover class is a British ship class of small fleet tankers, active from 1970 to 2017 with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Two remain in service, one having been sold to Portugal and one to Indonesia; the rest have been scrapped or are awaiting disposal. They are tasked with the replenishment at sea of naval warships with fuel oils and with limited supplies of other naval stores. For RAS tasking, they can refuel a vessel on either beam and a third trailing astern and have a large flight deck to allow vertical replenishment with helicopters.
Operation Musketeer was the Anglo-French plan for the invasion of the Suez canal zone to capture the Suez Canal during the Suez Crisis in 1956. The operation had initially been given the codename Operation Hamilcar, but this name was quickly dropped when it was found that the British were painting an air recognition letter H on their vehicles, while the French, who spelled Hamilcar differently, were painting an A. Musketeer was chosen as a replacement because it started with M in both languages. Israel, which invaded the Sinai peninsula, had the additional objectives of opening the Straits of Tiran and halting fedayeen incursions into Israel. The Anglo-French military operation was originally planned for early September, but the necessity of coordination with Israel delayed it until early November. However, on 10 September British and French politicians and Chiefs of the General Staff agreed to adopt General Charles Keightley's alterations to the military plans with the intention of reducing Egyptian civilian casualties. The new plan, renamed Musketeer Revise, provided the basis of the actual Suez operation.
The Wave class was a class of replenishment oilers built for service supporting the Royal Navy during the later years of the Second World War. They were subsequently transferred to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary after the end of the war, and went on to support British and allied fleet units in Cold War conflicts such as the Korean War.
Wave Baron was a 8,159 GRT Wave-class oiler that was built in 1946 as Empire Flodden by Furness Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Haverton Hill-on-Tees, County Durham, United Kingdom for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was transferred to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and renamed Wave Baron. She was withdrawn from service in 1969 and scrapped in 1972.
In 1989 the Royal Navy was under the direction of the Navy Department in the UK Ministry of Defence. It had two main commands, CINCFLEET and Naval Home Command.
