WORK has begun on the second of the biggest warships ever built for the Royal Navy with the first steel cut for HMS Prince of Wales.
Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox performed the honours at BAE Systems’ Govan shipyard, pressing the button on a computer-guided laser to cut the first piece of hull for the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier.
In a decade’s time the ship and her older sister HMS Queen Elizabeth will be the hub of Britain’s global defence policy, the launchpads for F35 Lightning II stealth fighter-bombers and helicopters.
For now, however, the two £5bn carriers are very much ‘works in progress’; they are being built in giant segments at six shipyards around the UK under the banner of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance before being assembled in a gigantic dry dock at Rosyth.
In a decade’s time the ship and her older sister HMS Queen Elizabeth will be the hub of Britain’s global defence policy, the launchpads for F35 Lightning II stealth fighter-bombers and helicopters.
For now, however, the two £5bn carriers are very much ‘works in progress’; they are being built in giant segments at six shipyards around the UK under the banner of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance before being assembled in a gigantic dry dock at Rosyth.
