Britain’s newest £3.3bn aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales steams into Carbis Bay to provide the backdrop for Boris Johnson’s first meeting with Joe Biden
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The Royal Navy’s newest aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales has been pictured moving into Carbis Bay ahead of Boris Johnson’s first meeting with Joe Biden.
The £3.3 billion state-of-the-art ship patrolled the waters ahead of the G7 summit in Cornwall.
It comes after an F-35B Lightning aircraft landed onboard the aircraft carrier for the first time yesterday.
The 900ft long carrier, which has a crew of 1,600, is based at Portsmouth and was formally commissioned in December 2019.
The HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier patrols the waters off St Ives, Cornwall ahead of the G7 summit
It comes after an F-35B Lightning aircraft landed onboard the aircraft carrier for the first time yesterday
The ship has been beset with technical problems and was stranded in Portsmouth in December 2020 after thousands of gallons of sea water poured into the vessel’s engine room for more than 24 hours and damaged the electrics.
The state-of-the-art ship was banned from setting sale until repairs were made, with defence minister Jeremy Quin revealing the fix would cost £3.3million.
It marked the second leak for the 65,000-tonne ship in less than a year. The engine room had already been flooded to the depth of 3ft during a leak in May 2020.
It was later revealed that the carrier had spent just 87 days at sea during its first two years in service.
But today, there was no sign of any issues as it patrolled the sea near the G7 summit.
The Queen Elizabeth-class carrier is the eighth HMS Prince of Wales.
It’s sister ship is the Queen Elizabeth is currently taking part in a military exercise in the Black Sea.
The arrival of the carrier brings the number of Navy vessels on security watch for G7 to four.
The frigate HMS Northumberland has been based off the Cornish coast for three days along with HMS Tyne and Tamar,