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Spring comes to Plymouth as RFA tanker completes 291-day mission
6 February 2026
Spring has arrived in Plymouth.
No, not daffodils and all that... RFA Tide-spring, in Blighty again after nine and a half months away from home.
No, not daffodils and all that... RFA Tide-spring, in Blighty again after nine and a half months away from home.
She is the very last ship assigned to the RN’s premier deployment of 2025 to return to the UK – two months after the flagship (HMS Prince of Wales) and her escorts (HMS Richmond and HMS Dauntless).
Tidespring supported the core of the Operation Highmast deployment, providing the ships in the force (NATO and international allies, as well as Royal Navy) chiefly with fuel, but also other supplies, such as food and water if required.
Over the course of 79 replenishments at sea (roughly three every week while attached to the carrier group), such delivered over 30,000 ‘cubes’ (cubic metres) of diesel (enough to fill 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools) and 4,200 cubes of aviation fuel into the tanks of allied vessels.
And her flight deck/hangar served as a springboard for helicopter operations (chiefly Merlin Mk2s providing protection for the task group against surface and underwater threats) as well as drones from 700X Naval Air Squadron.
The tanker broke away from the group at the end of October and made her way around the Cape of Good Hope bound for Gibraltar, via a whistle-stop visit to the British territory of St Helena.
Tidespring arrived at The Rock shortly after the strike group reached home waters, since when she’s undergone some maintenance, hosted VIPs and senior officers and taken part in Gib’s New Year’s celebrations.
Following a stormy passage across the Bay of Biscay, the ship sailed up the Hamoaze yesterday – 42 weeks and 3 days (291 days in total) since leaving the UK, having added 45,954 nautical miles to the ‘odometer’, or the equivalent of sailing twice around the world.
Now in the hands of the Devonport Alongside Services team, she’ll be off again shortly resuming her support for RN operations.