A £3 billion ($3.9 billion) British aircraft carrier that was stuck in drydock for nearly a year has finally set sail again after overcoming the latest in a series of setbacks.
(Bloomberg) — A £3 billion ($3.9 billion) British aircraft carrier that was stuck in drydock for nearly a year has finally set sail again after overcoming the latest in a series of setbacks.
The HMS Prince of Wales left a Babcock International Group shipyard in Rosyth, Scotland, this week, and is now back with the Royal Navy, said David Lockwood, chief executive officer of the UK shipbuilding firm.
“It came in for something that was nothing to do with us and it was fixed,” Lockwood said in an interview Thursday after Babcock reported annual results.
After being commissioned by the Royal Navy in 2019, the Prince of Wales suffered flooding twice in 2020. It was hit with a malfunction with the starboard propeller in August, which the Navy at the time called an “extremely unusual fault.” The aircraft carrier was moved to Rosyth shipyard, its home port, where it underwent about £25 million of repairs and planned upgrades.
The breakdowns marked an embarrassing chapter for the UK military and raised questions about readiness at a time of heightened tensions after Russia invaded Ukraine. The Prince of Wales’ sister ship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, sailed across the Atlantic last September in its place, and took over some of the beleaguered carrier’s planned duties while it was being fixed.
The Royal Navy plans to release a statement on the ship’s status “in the very near future,” a spokeswoman said by email. The Navy said in May that it aimed for the Prince of Wales to begin operations in fall of this year.
Babcock is a part of the Aircraft Carrier Alliance which helped to build the HMS Prince of Wales. BAE Systems Plc, Thales Group and the UK’s Ministry of Defence are also members. BAE declined to comment, while Thales didn’t immediately respond.
All parties worked together to conduct the repairs, and “made the best of the available time,” Lockwood said.
(Updates with further comment from Babcock CEO, BAE response from seventh paragraph)
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