Daily Mail: Final touches are added to HMS Prince of Wales before it sets sail from Rosyth Dockyard for sea trials
* The £3.1 billion HMS Prince of Wales makes its maiden voyage today to begin nine weeks of sea trials
* Britain's second and newest aircraft carrier, measuring 920 feet in length, leaves Rosyth dockyard in Scotland
* Navigators, pilots and tug boats had the slimmest of margins to deal with as they guided the 65,000 tonne behemoth out of the basin through a narrow opening during high tide
Britain's second and newest aircraft carrier, the £3.1 billion HMS Prince of Wales, makes its maiden voyage today to begin nine weeks of sea trials.
Measuring 920 feet in length, the sister ship of HMS Queen Elizabeth squeezed out of Rosyth dockyard, leaving the Scottish basin where she was assembled, and announced it was at anchor in the Forth at 8pm.
The process of getting the four-acre military operating base on to the Firth of Forth represented one of the most delicate manoeuvres the warship would have to undertake.
Navigators, pilots and tug boats had the slimmest of margins to deal with as they guided the 65,000 tonne behemoth out of the basin through a narrow opening during high tide.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: The crew are slamming their quarters .... HMS Prince of Wales 'is a bomb site': Sailors on board new £3.2bn 'Big Charlie' aircraft carrier slam plush officers' cabin portrayed in glitzy launch publicity - saying crew quarters are unfinished and 'demoralising' (Daily Mail).
More News On Britain's New Aircraft Carrier HMS Prince of Wales At Sea For The First Time
HMS Prince of Wales: New aircraft carrier sails for the first time -- BBC
HMS Prince Of Wales: Both Of Britain's Aircraft Carriers At Sea For First Time -- Forces Network
HMS Prince of Wales: Tight squeeze for 'extraordinary' UK aircraft carrier in maiden voyage -- SKY News
Royal Navy supercarrier HMS Prince of Wales leaves dock for the first time -- ITV News
HMS Prince of Wales sets sail for the first time -- Naval-Technology
Left unsaid about these British aircraft carriers is they have no on board anti-air capability at all. None. The boats can't defend themselves.
ReplyDeleteNow look at the Royal Navy's surface escort fleet. It is tiny with little margin for reserves.
In short these aircraft carriers are vanity ships with little value against a peer and would never be sailed anywhere near Iran for example.