There is no doubt that the fleet of Extender 73A oiler/transports are the hardest working ships in the fleet clocking up huge mileages every year supporting fleet operations and acting as the life blood of the DDS. The problem is the Extenders are being worked a fair bit harder than the DDS originally envisaged with a lot more special deployments and detachments now the norm.
The oldest ship A141 Extender was recently examined after serving as oiler on the Southern Spirit deployment. Coming up to 5 years service the ship's state and wear and tear was more like the ship had served 8 or 9. A planned refurbishment for the Extender fleet may have to be bought forward. The DDS will look to strengthening the structure of these ships to they can better cope with the huge workload, which is likely to only get heavier in years to come.
