The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom continues to have lots of problems with its Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. £7 billion spent for these two vessels and constant mechanical failures, coupled with the limited functionality of the vessels, raise very serious questions as to their reliability and effectiveness.
HMS Queen Elizabeth, flagship of the Royal Navy, suffered a minor fire on Tuesday while in dock at Glen Mallan on Loch Long for repairs. No one was injured but the damage gave additional reason for concerns over the state of readiness of the ship. “a minor, isolated fire on HMS Queen Elizabeth was quickly brought under control and extinguished.” a Royal Navy spokesperson confirmed to USNI News.
The Royal Navy’s two carriers were approved in 2007, but they have had a very difficult road to the sea. HMS Prince of Wales has been afflicted with engine room leaks and several mechanical breakdowns. Since its commissioning in 2019, the warship has spent almost 33% of its time being repaired, while just 21.3% of its days have been at sea. In August 2022, a fault in the starboard propeller shaft forced the carrier to suspend its Atlantic crossing and head into dry dock for extensive repairs.
It has been one damning blow after another since HMS Prince of Wales’ early days at service. In October 2020, major flooding in the engine room caused substantial damage to electrical systems from a burst fire main. More recently, the vessel has been in dock at Rosyth for repairs; the bill for the propeller shaft fault alone is put at an estimated £25 million ($31 million). As yet, the Ministry of Defence has not decided who will pay the cost of these repairs.
HMS Queen Elizabeth has not been immune to its fair share of mishaps, either. In November 2021, a UK-operated F-35B fighter crashed into the Mediterranean Sea after taking off from the carrier, kicking off a recovery effort to avoid the technology falling into Russian hands. The investigation uncovered that the aircraft had ingested a cover that protects the engine air intake, which had not been removed before take-off.
These operational limitations are further exacerbated by the carriers’ logistical challenges. The single solid stores ship-RFA Fort Victoria-that the Royal Navy operates to support the carriers is scheduled for retirement in 2028. This lack of support raises serious questions regarding the carriers’ ability to operate independently and conduct the missions for which they were designed.
Tom Sharpe of the UK’s Telegraph newspaper observed that the carriers, for all that they are a great capability, will never match a US Carrier Strike Group for breadth of capability and firepower. He also added, “gaping holes in the ships’ airborne early warning, air-to-air refueling, and solid stores support.”
The Royal Navy’s problems with its aircraft carriers come at a time when UK ministers have warned that the nation is not adequately prepared to fight an all-out war amid stockpile shortages and an armed forces recruitment crisis. In many ways, the once-mighty Royal Navy has started to confront the challenge of maintaining billion-dollar carriers in service and effective in an increasingly complex global security environment.