Inocea Group to Acquire UK’s RFA Wave-class Oilers

By Blair Shaw, 19 February 2026

The Inocea Group has confirmed it will acquire both Royal Fleet Auxiliary Wave-class oilers (Knight and Ruler) from the UK.  (The Inocea Group currently owns MV Asterix.) The Wave-class sale has lead me to consider a hypothetical scenario in which I am putting to the forum for input and discussion.

The Question:

Is it possible that we could be looking at moving away from traditional government owned and operated auxiliary services such as the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in favour of an outsourced 3rd party supplier owned and operated by a commercial company for profit in order to service the fleet with stores?

This would be outside the normal STUFT (Ship Taken Up From Trade) operations and could take the form of an ad hoc charter, for example during large deployments or exercises or, like Asterix, long-term lease to a Navy/Government.

Pros:

I think we can speculate that the benefits of this would be; freeing up government budgets in some areas so that they can input funding elsewhere.
They would also have no requirement to refit, replace and/or maintain the ship coupled with crewing as it would become a commercial problem.

Cons:

Inability to be more flexible with deployments with ships' companies run along the same vein as commercial shipping companies, thus; time off requirements, benefits etc could be a difficult thing to manage unlike a government owned/military managed vessel.

I also see many in the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), for example, questioning the chartering agreements given that you spend a lot of money and have no asset to show.

Conclusion:

Post continues on the Broadsides Forum

Trending now:

• Inocea Group to Acquire UK's RFA Wave-class oilers
• Why Canada Does Not Need a 'Tripwire' Navy
• Dollars and Sense: Budget 2025 Provides Transformational Defence Funding, but Unclear Direction
• Why Does Canada Have a Navy? Reflecting on the Canadian Leaders at Sea Program
• Editorial: Possibilities and Pitfalls
• The 2026 US Defense Strategy Document
• Sweetening the Pot for Submarines
• What to do in Greenland
• President Trump's Battleships
• Some Thoughts on A Canadian Arctic Amphibious Capability
• RCN Polar Class 2 Amphibious Icebreaker
• Happy Holidays
• Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship
• CNR sponsors: visit page

Latest CNR: Vol. 21 No. 3 (2026)

The second article, “The Strategic Utility of Aircraft Carriers in China’s Ambitions in East Asia,” discusses the rapid growth of China’s aircraft carrier capability and how and where Beijing would likely use them in the case of war. The third article is “Why Does Canada have a Navy? Reflecting on the Canadian Leaders at Sea Program.” In this article, the author addresses a simple question that was asked while he was participating in the CLaS program, and considers what a navy represents and why Canada has one. The final essay, “SS Nerissa: A Tragic Footnote to History,” tells the little-known story of the last voyage of SS Nerissa that was sunk by a U-boat while transporting troops and civilians across the Atlantic in the Second World War.

If that isn’t enough to spark your interest, we have our usual Making Waves commentaries. We have a commentary about hydrography in the Arctic. Sound boring? It’s not. If Canada is getting submarines that are expected to operate in the Arctic, Ottawa needs to act now to map the seafloor there. We have a commentary about the many historic discussions about moving the Coast Guard into the defence department. We have a commentary about the unthinkable – i.e., having naval ships that can act as ‘tripwires’ in the event that the United States decides to blockade Canada. We have an account of a conference in Australia, Canadian interest in East Asia, and preparing for Russia in the Arctic.

And, of course, we have our regular columns. “A View from the West” looks at North Korea’s increasing focus on its navy. “Dollars and Sense” examines the defence-related parts of Budget 2025, and “Warship Developments” updates us on several interesting recent naval decisions.  

In addition to all this great information, we have our usual amazing photos!

Stay tuned. In a few weeks, the issue will be in the mailbox of people who are lucky enough to be subscribers! It’s not too late for you to subscribe. See here for the Table of Contents.

CNR resources

Read more: CNR Archives (60+ magazines in PDF) and Subject Index (600+ articles)

Looking for Books about Maritime Matters?

Over the last 20 years, Canadian Naval Review has published over 180 book reviews. These books cover a variety of topics but they all relate to maritime matters, history, or security and defence at sea. This is an amazing resource. Go through the list of reviews, pick out a few books that look interesting, read the reviews, and then order the books from your nearest bookstore or from the publisher. See the list of book reviews at https://www.navalreview.ca/book-reviews/