Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the original planned date for acceptance into service of Royal Fleet Auxiliary Tidespring; and what is now the planned date for acceptance into service.

At contract award in 2012, Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) TIDESPRING was expected to enter service in October 2016.

In order to address emergent technical issues, the programme schedule was revised in 2016, and RFA TIDESPRING was accepted off-contract in January 2017. On current plans, we expect RFA TIDEPSRING to start UK customisation and capability assessment trials in the spring, before entering service with the RFA by the end of 2017.

We expect all four Maritime Afloat Reach and Sustainability (MARS) tankers to have entered service with the RFA by the end of 2018, as planned.