The Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) is a naval auxiliary fleet owned by the UK's Ministry of Defence. It provides vital 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 across 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.
RFA Diligence was a forward repair ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Launched in 1981 as a support ship for North Sea oil rigs, she was chartered by the British government to support naval activities during the 1982 Falklands War and was later bought outright as a fleet maintenance vessel. She gave assistance to the damaged USS Tripoli and Princeton in the 1991 Gulf War, and to Sri Lanka after the 2005 tsunami. She typically had deployments of 5-8 years in support of the Trafalgar-class submarine on duty east of Suez, with a secondary role as a mothership for British and US minesweepers in the Persian Gulf. Until 2016 Diligence was set to go out of service in 2020. However in August 2016, the UK Ministry of Defence placed an advert for the sale of RFA Diligence. As of 2016 the option for the delivery of future operational maintenance and repair capability for the RFA remained under consideration. However, the 2021 British defence white paper made no specific mention of the need for this capability.
RFA Black Rover was a Rover-class small fleet tanker of the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was designed to replenish ships underway at sea with fuel, fresh water, and stores in all weather conditions. She had a helicopter deck served by a stores lift and was capable of conducting helicopter replenishment. Displacing 16,160 tonnes, she was powered by twin diesels and has a ship's company of 60.
RFA Olna (A123) was the third and final of the three Ol-class "fast fleet tanker" of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. Olna saw service in the Falklands War.
RFA Empire Gull (L3513) was a landing ship, tank of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was familiarly known as the "Black Pig" and was one of the last serving British LSTs. She was built as LST 3523, one of the Empire Ships, and later commissioned as HMS Trouncer. During the Suez Crisis she was pressed into Government service as SS Empire Gull. In 1970 she was transferred to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as RFA Empire Gull, serving for ten years before being scrapped.
RFA Wave Laird (A119) was an 8,187 GRT Wave-class fleet support tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was built in 1946 as Empire Dunbar by Sir J Laing & Sons Ltd, Sunderland, Co Durham for the Ministry of Transport and completed at Wave Laird. She served until 1961 when she was laid up at HMNB Devonport. Wave Laird was scrapped in 1970 in Spain.
RFA Sir Lancelot (L3029) was the lead ship and prototype of the Round Table class landing ship logistics, an amphibious warfare design operated by the British Armed Forces.
Two ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary have borne the name RFA Oakol:
RFA Resource was an armament stores ship of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editorially independent reporting, has the mission of providing accurate and uncensored reporting to countries in Asia that have poor media environments and limited protections for press freedom and freedom of speech.
HMAS Westralia was a modified Leaf-class replenishment oiler which served with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) from 1989 to 2006. Formerly RFA Appleleaf (A79), she served in with the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) from 1975 to 1989. The ship was initially leased to the RAN, then purchased outright in 1994. In 1998, a fire onboard resulted in the deaths of four sailors. Westralia was decommissioned in 2006, and the ship was sold into civilian service for use as a Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel, under the name Shiraz. However, the ship was laid up in Indonesia until late 2009, when she was sold to a Turkish ship breaking company. Arriving in January 2010, the vessel was scrapped.
There have been five British Royal Fleet Auxiliary hospital ships named RFA Maine.
USNS Spica (T-AFS-9), was a combat stores ship acquired by the U.S. Navy from the United Kingdom in 1981. She participated in Operation Fiery Vigil to evacuate Clark Air Base personnel following the Mount Pinatubo Eruption in 1991. She served as part of the Military Sealift Command until she was deactivated in 2008.
RFA Wave Victor (A220) was an 8,187 GRT Wave-class fleet support tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary built at Haverton Hill-on-Tees by Furness Shipbuilding Company. She was built in 1942 as Empire Bounty for the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT). She was transferred to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in 1946 and renamed Wave Victor with Pennant number X130. Her pennant number was later changed to A220. She served until scrapped in 1981.
RFA Maine was a 7,432 GRT hospital ship which was built in 1924 as the ocean liner Leonardo da Vinci by SA Ansaldo, La Spezia, Italy for the Società di Navigazione Transatlantica Italiana. In 1941, she was captured by the British at Kismayu, Italian Somaliland. Declared a prize of war, she was passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Clyde, serving as a hospital ship for the British Army during the Second World War. In 1948, ownership was passed to the Admiralty and she entered service with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary as RFA Maine. She served during the Korean War and was scrapped in 1954.
Wave Ruler was a 8,138 GRT Wave-class oiler that was built in 1946 as Empire Evesham by Furness Shipbuilding Co Ltd, Haverton Hill-on-Tees, Co Durham, United Kingdom for the British Ministry of Transport. In 1947, she was transferred to the Admiralty and commissioned into the Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) as Wave Ruler. She was in active service until 1970 when she was hulked in the Maldive Islands, serving RAF Gan until 1975. She was sold in 1976 and scrapped in Taiwan in 1977.
RRS Discovery II was a British Royal Research Ship which, during her operational lifetime of about 30 years, carried out considerable hydrographical and marine biological survey work in Antarctic waters and the Southern Ocean in the course of the Discovery Investigations research program. Built in Port Glasgow, launched in 1928 and completed in 1929, she was the first purpose-built oceanographic research vessel and was named after Robert Falcon Scott's 1901 ship, RRS Discovery.
RFA Gray Ranger was a British fleet support tanker of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary which served in World War II. She was torpedoed and sunk in the Greenland Sea by the German submarine U-435 on 22 September 1942 while travelling as part of Convoy QP 14.
Kuroshio Maru was a tanker that was built in 1938 for Japanese owners. She was chartered by the Imperial Japanese Navy and Imperial Japanese Army during World War II: the ship was sunk in January 1945 at Takao, Formosa by American aircraft. Salvaged in 1946, she was allocated as a war prize to China and renamed Yung Hao, but was forced to remain at Hong Kong by the British. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty during the Korean War and allocated to the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She was to have been named RFA Surf Pilot but due to her poor condition she did not serve in the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. She served as Surf Pilot, a tender to HMS Terror until 1958 and was subsequently scuttled off Pulau Aur, Malaya in 1960.
United Kingdom