Britain’s flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth has returned to Portsmouth tomorrow following four months of repairs in Scotland and a short intensive spell at sea to test her systems.
The 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier left Rosyth Dockyard a week ago after arriving there in March for unscheduled work in dry dock to her shaft lines.
The ship emerged sooner than initially forecast from repairs and, after sailing under the Forth Bridges, has spent the last seven days at sea being put through her paces on trials to test her systems to the maximum.
This has included marine engineering trials, sailing at high speed for extended periods of time and maneuvering as aggressively as possible to give the command team full confidence in her systems following the docking period.
The nation’s flagship will return home to Portsmouth to begin preparations for operations this autumn.
Before heading into Portsmouth, the aircraft carrier will carry out a sail past of the Isle of Wight, exchanging gun salutes with the Royal Yacht Squadron as the iconic Cowes Week regatta – for which HMS Tyne is guardship – continues in the Solent.
Commanding Officer of HMS Queen Elizabeth, Captain Will King, said: “Whilst no warship wants to find itself spending unscheduled time out of the water, I am enormously proud of the work that has gone on in Rosyth.
“Everybody on board is looking forward to getting back to sea, where we belong, and picking up a busy program in the autumn.”
While testing her systems, the ship has also been carrying out a wide variety of training, including boat drills, damage control exercises and intelligence briefings to get sailors and officers back up to speed after their time in Rosyth.
Royal Air Force P8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth worked closely with the aircraft carrier, while sailors took advantage of some fine weather in the North Sea to do maintenance to the upper deck.
To get the carrier back to sea has been a joint effort between the Royal Navy, Defence Equipment & Support and Babcock.
Commander Alex Davies, head of the marine engineering department, said: “An enormous amount of work has taken place over the last few months to get us to this point.
“This is at the larger end of the scale for Royal Navy Marine Engineering, and it has taken a really effective team effort from our own engineers, Defence Equipment and Support, and our Industry Partners to return us to sea.”