Fort Victoria-class

The Fort Victoria class, also designated the Fort II class, comprises two auxiliary oiler replenishment ships (AOR) of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary of the United Kingdom, combining the tanker and solid stores replenishment roles. Six ships were initially planned to support Type 23 frigates in the North Atlantic anti-submarine role; because the Type 23 was then conceived as a low-cost, lightly armed escort, the Fort ships were expected to provide their own air defence with the Sea Wolf vertical-launch surface-to-air missile. After the Falklands War the Type 23 was redesigned as a multi-role frigate carrying Sea Wolf itself, and the Fort requirement was cut from six ships to two. Fort Victoria (A387) was ordered from Harland & Wolff, Belfast, on 23 April 1986 and Fort George (A388) from Swan Hunter, Wallsend, on 18 December 1987. Fort George entered service on 16 July 1993. Fort Victoria was delayed by a Provisional IRA attack on 6 September 1990, when a bomb holed and flooded her engine room, leaving her listing 45 degrees; a second device took two weeks to locate and defuse. She was accepted into service on 24 June 1994.

The ships carry 12,500 m³ of liquids, 3,377 m³ of ammunition and 2,941 m³ of dry stores. Propulsion is by two Crossley-Pielstick V16 medium-speed diesels on two shafts. Aviation facilities comprise a two-spot flight deck and a hangar for three AgustaWestland Merlin helicopters, with up to five Sea King or Merlin airframes embarked. Sensors include the Type 993 three-dimensional surveillance radar and a Kelvin Hughes SharpEye navigation radar, with Seagnat countermeasures launchers and the Type 182 towed decoy. Armament, fitted according to deployment, consists of two Phalanx close-in weapon systems — installed in Fort Victoria in 1998 — two 20 mm Oerlikon/BMARC KAA guns in GAM-B01 mounts, general purpose machine guns and, from 2023, Browning .50 calibre heavy machine guns in place of miniguns. The Sea Wolf VLS was never fitted.

Fort Victoria took part in Operation Telic in early 2003 and in Operation Highbrow, the 2006 evacuation from Lebanon, embarking Merlin HM1 helicopters of 814 Naval Air Squadron. From September 2010 she operated in the Indian Ocean under NATO's Operation Ocean Shield, and in June 2011 stood off Yemen with 80 Royal Marines embarked. With USS De Wert she assisted in the recovery of the Italian ship Montecristo on 11 October 2011; in January 2012 she forced the pirate mothership Liquid Velvet back to Somalia and her Royal Marines detachment captured 13 Somali pirates. She served as flagship of Combined Task Force 151 and, in May 2012, hosted the first MH-60R operations from a British ship by HSM-77 Detachment Five. Fort George was decommissioned in April 2011 and scrapped in Turkey in 2013. Fort Victoria refitted in 2017–18 to support the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, joined the UK Carrier Strike Group in October 2020, and was placed in extended readiness as an uncrewed reserve in late 2024 pending replacement under the Fleet Solid Support Ship Programme.