Royal Navy’s New £3.1billion Aircraft Carrier Stranded In Port

ROYAL NAVY’S New £3.1billion Aircraft Carrier Stranded In Port for the last six months

The Royal Navy’s new £3.1billion aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, a 919ft long, 65,000-ton warship, which can carry 36 planes and four helicopters, is stranded in Portsmouth Naval Base, Hants, England, after a series of floods and fires confined her to port, aborting a planned trip to the US, for a training manoevure with F-15 jet fighters.

In May 2020, video footage showed gallons of seawater pouring through a hole into the vessel’s living quarters, and now, this latest flood, caused by a burst pipe, has reportedly submerged the engine room for more than 24 hours, with miles of electrical cables being damaged and needing to be replaced.

A Navy source commented, “It’s embarrassing. The America trip took years of planning and we’ve had to say we can’t come. It will take months to repair the damage. Costs will run to millions”, although the navy still insists the ship will be fully operational by the original deadline of 2023.

With HMS Prince of Wales being confined to port, there have been a number of complaints from residents nearby about the noise of her engine’s diesel generators, keeping them awake at night, with one local, Mr Sutton saying,  “We are sticking our heads under our pillows at night in a bid to get some sleep. In this lockdown, why can we not open our windows and enjoy peace and tranquillity?”.

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