Royal Fleet Auxiliary MARS Tanker Design

As part of the RFA's fleet, the MARS Tankers will offer logistical support to the Royal Navy by providing fuel and fresh water to naval vessels at sea. With the RFA Flotilla providing ever greater support to Royal Navy operations as well as providing a visible UK military presence across the globe, the platform design has been specially optimised for the requirements of the Royal Navy and RFA. It utilises a hull design that meets the latest marine pollution regulations and adopts design principles that are common with the latest Royal Navy platforms. This new addition to the fleet is due to be in service with the RFA from 2016 onwards.

BMT won this prestigious specialist design project as part of the winning Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) for the Royal Navy's MARS Tanker. The contract worth an approximate GBP452 million combines outstanding shipbuilding quality and superior technology from DSME with naval design expertise from BMT Defence Services via our BMT-AEGIR® vessel design, a tailorable platform design created to satisfy the requirements common to many of the world's navies.

Designed to comply with international maritime legislation, the MARS Tanker is a bespoke double hull design which utilises Commercial Off the Shelf technologies and provides low through life costs to meet the requirements of the UK Ministry of Defence. BMT's exceptional knowledge of Royal Navy and RFA needs, combined with DSME's first class quality shipbuilding reputation, allowed the provision of a cost-effective solution that can not only be tailored to the UK's specific requirements, but can also allow the UK to retain design capabilities in ship design and engineering.

BMT will assist in the development of a robust and cost effective Integrated Logistics support solution for the vessels.  It will apply its extensive experience of MoD and Royal Fleet Auxiliary/Royal Navy practices and procedures and provide specialist services including the management, assessment and optimisation of the Supportability, Availability and Reliability of the vessels. 

BMT will further provide assurances that the ships are safe in accordance with MoD standards, as well as UK and international legislation through the production of a Whole Ship Safety Case for the MARS Tankers.  As well as developing a comprehensive Hazard Log covering all aspects of ship operation, BMT will conduct a comprehensive environmental assessment of the ships including an inventory of hazardous materials.