Warship hull begins 600 mile trip

Oct 14 2012

The next stage in the building of the "largest and most powerful warship" ever built for the Royal Navy is set to begin when an 11,000-tonne hull section is prepared for a 600-mile journey.

Lower Block 04 of HMS Queen Elizabeth will be moved out of a hall at BAE Systems' Govan Shipyard in Glasgow before it is transferred on a barge to Rosyth, Fife, later this month.

The 80m (262ft) long and 40m wide (131ft) section, which houses a hospital complex, a dentist surgery and 242 accommodation berths, will be moved out of the hall on more than 100 remote-controlled transporters.

The hull section will take five days to travel round the coastline to Rosyth where it will be joined up with the other sections of the ship constructed in Portsmouth.

The ship is due to be completed by 2016, with another aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, following later. They could be deployed in active service from 2017.

They are being delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership between BAE Systems, Thales UK, Babcock and the Ministry of Defence. Project director Steven Carroll described it as "the largest and most powerful warship we've ever built for the Royal Navy".

Each of the carriers will be utilised by all three sectors of the armed forces and will provide a four-acre operating base which can be deployed worldwide, and will be able to be used in battle and to provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief.