Wave goodbye
The NAO says the MoD has decided to place the second Wave Class RFA tanker in “extended readiness” which will save £79M over 10 years. This relatively small saving from deactivating a single ship demonstrates how taut budget planning has become. A shortage of marine engineers may also be behind this decision as well as the attraction of only having to actively support a single tanker type in service. The remaining four modern Tide class vessels can just about meet RN requirements, assuming that at least one is typically in maintenance and one is assigned as FOST tanker on the South coast. However, the decision still represents the loss of yet another hull to the fleet, just as HMS Scott and RFA Argus are also due to retire without replacement in the next couple of years.
RFA Wave Ruler laid up in Royal Seaforth Dock, Liverpool since April 2018. Photo: Frisia Bonn
RFA Wave Knight was recently deployed in the Caribbean and Gulf demonstrating the excellent helicopter facilities that provide the Waves with considerable utility besides replenishing warships. Placing this kind of vessel in reserve is preferable to scrapping but without a crew and in need of lengthy reactivation refits reduces the options to respond in the case of a sudden crisis.Curiously the NAO notes that it would take a considerable amount of time to make them available again and £110 million should be set aside to reactivate the ships between 2028-31, if required. By this time they will be about 30 years old and
RFA Wave Ruler has already spent 4 years alongside in Liverpool and been partially STOROBED to supply spare parts for her sister.
At the time of writing it is unclear how soon RFA Wave Knight will join Wave Ruler in mothballs.RFA argus is currently scheduled to be decommissioned in 2024, by then aged 43 years old. In the long term, her aviation and afloat medical support capabilities will be replaced by one of the six planned Multi-Role Support Ships. The MoD says that in the interim, before MRSS arrives (in the mid-2030s?) “a range of potential options are being explored, including a short extension in service”.
Years of delay and prevarication in placing orders for the Fleet Solid Support Ships leave the CSG reliant on a single ship, RFA Fort Victoria. The order for FSS will not be placed until May 2023 as the bidders need to complete detailed proposals and design work. Construction will have to run smoothly, the first ship needs to be operational by 2028 when Fort Vic will retire. The MoD promises to “manage the transition to ensure that the Carrier Strike Group retains a sovereign core and ability to operate independently”.
https://www.thefifthcolumn.xyz/forum/sea-warfare/57-royal-navy?view=streamEstas alminhas estão á espera de quê para irem buscar o Wave Knight
Abraços
