Royal Navy auxiliary ship returns home after two years of operations

The Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship RFA Fort Victoria is back home after over two years of operations.

Fort Victoria arrived in Crombie, Fife, after concluding a 26-month deployment.

During her 26-month deployment, Fort Victoria carried out a total of 150 underway replenishment operations, issuing 58,634 cubic meters of F76 diesel, 1,669 cubic meters of F44 aviation fuel, and transferred 617 pallets of various stores, ranging from ice cream to ammunition.

She spent the majority of her time East of Suez in support of coalition forces’ counter piracy and counter narcotics operations.

She was also called upon to re-deploy to the Aegean Sea between March and May last year in order to provide assistance and additional assets to operations taking place in the region.

In March this year Fort Victoria’s embarked Sea King helicopter helped seize a drug-running dhow.

These actions resulted in a US boarding team apprehending the suspect vessel and successfully locating 278 kg of pure heroin. This drug haul, if distributed, would have been worth upwards of £40m on the streets of the UK.

Fort Victoria will now undergo a period of maintenance, equipment upgrades and modifications.