Last week, the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales was at 30 days’ notice for sea. That means exactly what it sounds like: if such a ship is ordered to sail, it is expected that it will take the captain and ship’s company 30 days to get ready. For once they can relax – go on leave, go on a course, commit to some deep maintenance, send items away to have things done to them. They can chill out, up to a point.
On Friday night, divers carried out an underwater inspection on HMS Queen Elizabeth, one of the Royal Navy’s two aircraft carriers. They discovered corrosion on a shaft coupling and this means the ship will need to be repaired in dry dock. The Navy is now scrambling to get her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, ready in order to take Queen Elizabeth’s place on a major Nato exercise. This setback is the latest in a long struggle over the last quarter-of-a-century in which the Royal Navy has sought
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK fleet's flagship aircraft carrier, canceled its role leading the largest NATO exercise since the Cold War at the last minute.