The Vessels / Ships of
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary

The RFA flotilla

The mainstay of the current Royal Fleet Auxiliary flotilla are the tankers. There are three classes of tankers in service, the fast fleet tankers of the Wave class, the small fleet tankers of the Rover class and the slower support tankers of the Leaf class.

The Stores vessels in the fleet are the four Fort class ships RFA Austin, George, Rosalie, and Victoria.

Two of the most unique ships in the fleet are the repair vessel RFA Diligence and the aviation training ship RFA Argus.
RFA Argus also doubles as the Primary Casualty Receiving Ship. Essentially the ship functions as a kind of hospital ship.

The final ships in the fleet are the ones that are most likely to expose themselves directly to enemy fire. The Round Table class LSLs (Landing Ship Logistics) supplement the amphibious assault ships that are commissioned warships in the Royal Navy. One of the class, RFA Sir Galahad, was sunk in the Falklands War, and the current ship of that name is a replacement for the sunk vessel built after the war.

The RFA is a mixture of old and new vessels. The Wave class tankers are new vessels, only coming into service in 2003. However, the other tankers are a great deal older, and are scheduled to be replaced with new double hulled vessels over the next few years. The stores ships are relatively modern, and so will not need replacing until the second decade of the 21st century.
The Bay Class boats are the replacements for the old Sir boats, the last of which was the RFA Sir Bedivere, and she was placed on the disposal list in April of 2008.

Current plans for the decommissioning of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary vessels are as follows:

Orangeleaf 2009
Brambleleaf 2009 (went 2 years early in 2007)
Gold Rover 2009
Bayleaf 2010
Oakleaf 2010 (went 3 years early in 2007)
Black Rover 2010
Sir Bedivere 2011 (went 3 years early in 2008)
Fort Rosalie 2013
Fort Austin 2014
Diligence 2014
Fort Victoria 2019
Fort George 2019
Argus 2020
Wave Ruler 2028
Wave Knight 2028