Displaying items by tag: QEclass aircraft carriers
#QEaircraftcarriers - BBC Scotland reports that Queen Elizabeth II is due to give her name to the largest warship built in the UK at a ceremony held this morning in Fife's Rosyth dockyard.
She will smash a bottle of whisky on the hull of the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth - the first of two new Royal Navy QE-class aircraft-carriers being built, the second is to be named HMS Prince of Wales.
The Queen will perform the naming ceremony at Rosyth with a bottle of whisky rather than champagne. PM David Cameron and First Minister Alex Salmond are both due to attend.
The warship - the largest ever built in and for the UK - is as long as 25 buses and can carry 40 jets and helicopters at a time. It will have a permanent crew of almost 700 when it enters service in 2020.
The estimated cost of the aircraft carrier and its sister ship is £6.2bn, well over the initial projected cost of £3.65bn.
Six shipyards in the UK - Appledore, Birkenhead, Govan, Portsmouth, Rosyth and Tyne - have been involved in building parts of the carrier.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, the final major component of the newbuild was installed last year by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance which is between BAE Systems, THALES and Babcock.
Of the 37 large sections that were constructed to assemble HMS Queen Elizabeth, yards including Babcock's Marine's other shipbuilding facility in Appledore, were involved.
Currently, the Babcock yard in North Devon is constructing L.E. James Joyce, the first of a further pair of OPV 90 class newbuilds following the 'floating-out' in November of the €54m leadship L.E. Samuel Beckett (P61).
The QE-class replace the Invincible-class trio in which the 22,000 tonnes HMS Illustrious (RO6) remains the last in service albeit in the role as a converted helicopter carrier.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, HMS Illustrious paid a rare visit to Dublin Port in 2013 and was illuminated in green for the Gathering.
To read more about the QE newbuild from BBC Scotland news, plus photos click HERE and for updates click this LINK. There will also be live TV coverage from 11 this morning of the naming of the aircraft-carrier.
