THE Royal Navy’s future flagship is expected to arrive in her new home port within weeks, Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon has confirmed.
The £3 billion aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will sail into Portsmouth following extensive preparations at the naval base to accommodate the largest ship in the fleet.
Weather conditions mean the exact date of the carrier’s arrival is yet to be confirmed.
The window for entry will open on August 17 and the vessel is expected to dock no later than August 22.
The 280-metre, 65,000- tonne aircraft carrier has been undergoing sea trials since setting sail from Rosyth dockyard in Fife in June.
The carrier currently has no planes but flying trials are due to begin next year, with 10 F-35 Lightning II jets and 120 aircrew preparing for the task in the United States.
Sir Michael said: “In just two weeks’ time, the most powerful warship ever built for Britain’s famous Royal Navy is set to sail into her proud new home in Portsmouth.
“HMS Queen Elizabeth will be the Royal Navy’s flagship for the next 50 years, deploying across the seven seas, using her strike power to deter our enemies.”
Preparations for the warship’s arrival saw more than 20,000 items ranging from a human skull to sea mines dredged up from Portsmouth Harbour.
A total of 3.2 million cubic metres of sediment – the equivalent of 12,800 Olympic swimming pools – were removed during the operation to deepen the harbour mouth to enable the Queen Elizabeth to reach Portsmouth Naval Base.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel