The Royal Navy has confirmed that RFA Fort Victoria will have a refit at Birkenhead that is intended to return the veteran support ship to service next year. After almost five years without conducting a replenishment at sea, the ship will be used to rebuild solid stores handling and RAS skills ahead of the arrival of the new Fleet Solid Support ships
Fort Victoria was towed back from lay-up in Seaforth Dock in Liverpool on 13th August and work on her started last week at Balaena Birkenhead (the yard formerly known as Cammell Laird). There is a substantial renovation package to be completed and the current expectation is that Fort Victoria could emerge from refit between summer and autumn 2027.
There was speculation that she would never to sail again, having effectively been inactive since returning home from the Carrier Strike Group deployment in December 2021. After de-storing, she entered a maintenance period at Birkenhead in May 2022 and returned to Plymouth that December. Plans for a busy 2023 and subsequent participation in major exercises and the 2025 carrier deployment progressively unravelled as RFA personnel shortages and material problems prevented regeneration. She returned to Birkenhead in September 2023 and subsequently spent most of the time in the Tranmere Basin at Birkenhead, where basic maintenance and preservation work was carried out.
She was moved into long-term lay-up in October 2024. At that point there was no crew available for her, her material condition had deteriorated and the cost of meeting increasingly stringent certification requirements raised serious doubts about whether further investment could be justified.
Fort Victoria nevertheless remains unique in the RFA. Although designed as a combined fleet tanker and stores ship, her principal value today is the ability to transfer ammunition, food, spare parts and other solid stores to warships while underway. No other British vessel currently provides the same heavy solid replenishment capability.
The intention is to keep the ship within her existing Lloyd’s Register classification basis rather than undertake alterations that would amount to a substantial change of class and potentially require compliance with more recent construction standards. Fort Victoria’s historic Lloyd’s notation included +100A1 for her hull, together with Lloyd’s machinery certification, unattended machinery spaces, inert gas arrangements, ice strengthening and certification of her refrigerated cargo machinery.
Retaining that existing basis helps make regeneration of a 32-year-old vessel practical, although she will still need to satisfy Lloyd’s Register that the machinery, structure and systems relevant to her class remain acceptable. The extent of work required after such a long period of inactivity means this is considerably more involved than simply recommissioning equipment and rebuilding the crew.
Fort Victoria will retain the ability to transfer both F76 marine diesel and F44 aviation fuel, although her tanker role will be secondary to solid stores replenishment because her fuel capacity is modest compared with the Tide-class tankers. Her £49.5M refit in 2018 modified the replenishment rigs to support the QEC carriers but reduced capacity further by giving her oil tanks double hull protection to meet modern standards. The RN said at the time this would leave her with the ability to provide around two complete fuel replenishments to an aircraft carrier.
During the CSG21 deployment, Fort Victoria conducted 44 replenishments at sea and transferred around 27,000 tonnes of fuel together with 350 tonnes of ammunition, food and spare parts. She also supported embarked Merlin helicopters and provided a large aviation deck and hangar. She was unavailable for the 2025 deployment, and the group was reliant on solid stores support from allied vessels, and VERTREP by helicopter transferring small amounts of stores held in containers on RFA Tidespring. If events had created a requirement for munitions resupply, there would have been significant complications and limitations on the carrier’s capabilities.
The rationale for reviving Fort Victoria now is less about squeezing another conventional operational cycle from an ageing ship and more about preserving skills. The first of the three new Fleet Solid Support ships, RFA Resurgent, will enter service in the early 2030s and will need competent crew. Without an interim platform, experience in handling ammunition and large quantities of stores between moving ships risks disappearing from the RN and RFA before the new vessels arrive. Fort Victoria can provide a bridge between older sailors with RAS (Solids) experience and a new generation of sailors, allowing crews to relearn and practise those specialist procedures. She would be a useful asset to the RN FOST organisation on the south coast, providing another vessel for RAS serials. However, she will not be exclusively a training ship and could be available for operational deployment if required.
Balaena Birkenhead is simultaneously working on two Tide-class tankers. RFA Tiderace is being regenerated after a lengthy period laid up because of the RFA personnel shortage and still has several defects to resolve before returning fully to service. RFA Tidesurge is undergoing a more conventional major refit, timed around the five-year Lloyd’s Register classification cycle. Classed ships are subject to annual and intermediate surveys, with a much more extensive Special Survey, effectively a class renewal, normally required every five years and providing a natural point for dry-docking and major maintenance. Tidesurge will spend 42 days in dry dock, including cleaning and repainting her 201-metre hull and work on the propulsion system and bow thruster. Around 40 RFA personnel remain assigned to the ship while Balaena staff, contractors and crew complete some 1,200 individual maintenance tasks and 38 capability enhancements. The work is expected to finish before Christmas, with any remaining issues thought more likely to cause delays measured in days rather than months.
The former Cammell Laird yard was renamed Balaena Birkenhead after Balaena acquired APCL Group from Peel Group in June 2026. The transaction also brought A&P Tyne and A&P Falmouth into the group, giving Balaena a substantial share of the UK’s naval and commercial ship repair capacity.
Fort Victoria still has a long road back, but the decision to invest in her again is significant. Having looked effectively finished only two years ago, the RFA’s oldest replenishment ship is now being prepared for one last useful role, rebuilding the skills that will eventually be handed over to a new generation of solid support ships.
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