First aircraft carrier parts arrive at Rosyth

Assembly of biggest warships ever made in UK to start

The bow sections of the first of Britain's new aircraft carriers have arrived at the Scottish shipyard where they are being assembled.

The two sections were built at Babcock's yard in Appledore, north Devon, and travelled to Rosyth in Fife by ocean-going barge, passing beneath the Forth bridges in the Firth of Forth.

The two Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers are being built in separate “blocks” at six shipyards around the UK and transported to Rosyth, where the 65,000 tonne vessels will be assembled in the UK’s largest dry dock.

The bow sections of HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of the carriers to be built, weigh about 400 tonnes together. Geoff Searle, programme director for the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, said: “Watching the arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth's bow as it sailed under the Forth bridges was an amazing sight.

“This marks the first major delivery on the aircraft carrier programme to the yard in Rosyth where both of these ships will be put together.

“These ships represent the best of UK industry, with sections being made at the country's major ship yards, supported by hundreds of other companies in the supply chain, providing contracts and work to thousands of people throughout the country.”

The HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are due to enter service in 2016 and around 2018 respectively at an estimated cost of £5 billion.

The ships will be 280m (918 feet) long with capacity for 40 aircraft. Each ship will have a crew of 679 and, including the air group, the total number of people on board would be 1,600.

Work is under way at ship yards in Devon, Glasgow, Portsmouth, Rosyth and Tyneside, with Merseyside starting work on its blocks this summer.

Mike Pettigrew, Babcock's managing director for warships, said: "Preparatory work has been ongoing here at the dockyard since the beginning of 2008 and it is a testament to the teams involved that dock number one is now the largest dry dock in the UK able to comfortably accommodate the assembly phases of this state of the art vessel."

The Aircraft Carrier Alliance comprises of Babcock, BAE Systems, Thales UK and the Ministry of Defence (MoD).