RFA Fort Victoria to Help Australians Fight Pirates

Delivering enough fuel in an hour to fill the tanks of over 5,400 family cars, support ship RFA Fort Victoria tops up frigate HMAS Melbourne to sustain the ongoing fight against piracy and terrorism.

Fort Vic can pump 700,000 litres of fuel an hour during a replenishment at sea – enough to fill the tanks of more than 12,500 Ford Focuses.

Melbourne needed less than half that to support her ongoing maritime security patrol, Operation Slipper – the Australian counterpart to Britain’s Operation Kipion, our east of Suez mission.

“Bringing 4,800 tonnes of metal together at 12 knots, less than 50 metres from 33,675 tonnes of metal, requires focus and ship handling skills,”

said Cdr Brian Schlegel, HMAS Melbourne’s CO.

“Operating in this part of the world in hot conditions takes its toll on the personnel on the upper decks during a RAS.

“That is something we have to remain cognisant of when working in hot environments. Overall this was a safe and successful RAS with Fort Victoria.”

The RFA ship is the command ship of Combined Task Force 151, led for the first time by a Royal Navy team headed by Cdre Jeremy Blunden.

The force, half a dozen vessels including the Melbourne, is charged with strangling piratical activity across 2½ million square miles of ocean, as well as clamping down on any other criminal activities the ships encounter – smuggling, terrorism, people trafficking.

This was the first RAS between the British auxiliary and the Australian warship; the Melbourne has just arrived in theatre, taking over from HMAS Newcastle in the 56th rotation of a Royal Australian Navy vessel to the Middle East region since the beginning of the first Gulf War in 1990.

The new arrival hosted a team from Fort Vic to discuss the current piracy threat and ways in which the task force will deter and disrupt any modern-day buccaneers operating off the Horn of Africa.

“HMAS Newcastle worked tirelessly over the past months to engage with the local maritime community and show our global resolution to combat the piracy problem,”

said Cdre Blunden.

“This is echoed by the new team onboard HMAS Melbourne who are well prepared for this important mission and ready to carry on the same good work as her predecessor.”

In return the RFA ship hosted some of the Australians to give them a taste of life and kit aboard a British military vessel.

“It was refreshing to see a ship from another Navy and to compare the Australian Navy systems and procedures to the Royal Navy,”

said AB Luke Luong RAN.

“It is clear that we stem from the same naval heritage.”

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Press Release, October 08, 2013; Image: Royal Navy