Royal Navy Flagship To Return To Portsmouth Following Repairs And Trials

Britain’s flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth will return home to Portsmouth on Tuesday, July 30 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 manoeuvring 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 harbour, 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 programme 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.”

While alongside in Rosyth, the ship hosted visits from the heads of the Swedish and Chilean Navies, and the senior Royal Navy and British Army officers based in Scotland. 

In addition, a team from the Fleet Operational Standards and Training (FOST) organisation provided a week of firefighting and damage control training for the entire ship. 

Sailors have also participated in a wide range of sports and adventurous training packages, including trips to the Naval Outdoor Centre in Bavaria, Germany. This has all been alongside a series of smaller scale maintenance and husbandry projects, including a full new coat of paint for the hull and upper deck. 

HMS Queen Elizabeth has also taken the opportunity to strengthen ties with their affiliated city Edinburgh, just across the Firth of Forth from Rosyth, with various civic dignitaries, officials and organisations hosted on board. 

The ship worked with two of the city’s universities to provide learning and development opportunities for sailors, and the ship’s rugby team participated in the annual Edinburgh rugby sevens tournament.