HMS Prince of Wales arrives in Portsmouth

The UK Royal Navy’s (RN’s) second Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier has arrived at Portsmouth naval base ahead of handover and formal commissioning.

HMS Prince of Wales sailing into Portsmouth harbour on 16 November. (Richard Scott/NAVYPIX)

HMS Prince of Wales sailed into its new base port on 16 November after completing an eight-week period of sea trials. Handover will represent the formal conclusion of manufacture activities undertaken by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (comprising BAE Systems, Babcock, Thales, and the UK Ministry of Defence).

Prince of Wales sailed from Babcock’s Rosyth yard, were the vessel was assembled and integrated, on 19 September with a mixed ship’s company of more than 600 RN sailors and about 300 civilian contractors. The carrier has subsequently completed trials in the North Sea, testing 158 essential systems on the ship including power and propulsion, radar systems, communications, and essential hotel and platform services. A first landing of a Merlin HM2 helicopter was also executed.

Prince of Wales will be commissioned on 10 December. The ship is scheduled to return to sea in February to begin further trials and initial work-up.

However, the ship is not due to embark F-35B aircraft until a development testing (DT) period scheduled for early 2021. Known as DT-3, this period of flight trials will address outstanding fixed-wing ship/air test points, most notably high deck motion launch and recovery, and shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) envelope expansion.

Unlike sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth , which has a short fixed array, Prince of Wales has been built with the full-length Bedford Array SRVL visual landing aid.