Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales has been spotted sailing up the Firth of Clyde towards Loch Long.
The 65,000‑tonne warship, which left Portsmouth last week with more than 900 crew on board, is en-route to the Glen Mallan ammunition jetty to prepare for a major Arctic deployment later this year.
The Royal Navy confirmed that the aircraft carrier will embark ammunition and other supplies in Scotland before leading a carrier strike group to the High North and North Atlantic under NATO’s new Arctic Sentry mission.
The deployment, known as Operation Firecrest, will see HMS Prince of Wales operate alongside US, Canadian and northern European forces, amid growing concern over Russian submarine and intelligence‑gathering activity near vital undersea cables and pipelines.
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HMS Prince of Wales, a £3 billion Queen Elizabeth‑class carrier capable of operating F‑35B Lightning II jets, has been in Portsmouth since returning in November from an eight‑month mission to the western Indo‑Pacific.
The Royal Navy says the current work‑up around the UK coast, including the visit to Glen Mallan, is the final step before the ship and her air group are declared ready for front‑line operations in northern waters later in 2026.
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