Earlier this month, the Royal Navy announced that its warships had spent nearly 10,000 hours – roughly 60 weeks in total – on NATO operations in 2022. The UK also led the alliance’s most important naval force. From the freezing Arctic and Baltic to the endless grey of the North Atlantic and azure waters of the Mediterranean, the Royal Navy’s warships, submarines, and aircraft successfully operated side by side with allies and partners, supporting peace and prosperity in Europe following Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
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While the HMS Prince of Wales also took on the flag at NATO’s command ship earlier this year, the £3.2 billion carrier, the largest ship in the British fleet, has also been languishing in a dockyard in Scotland after it broke down off the Isle of Wight in August. Since her commissioning in 2019, the flattop has been laid up more than she’s been in service.
As of Christmas Eve, the ship had spent just 267 days at sea, while the day before Christmas saw her 268th day in repairs!
HMS Prince of Wales’ problems have been serious and ongoing, putting into question her reliability. The issues began in early 2020, when the carrier suffered a leak in the engine room, followed by the collapse of an accommodation block.
Following repairs, it had seemed as if the carrier – the second of the Royal Navy’s two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers – had resolved the issues. These were dismissed as a few kinks that needed working out.
Broke Down Warship
In August, just prior to a scheduled trip to New York, the carrier broke down off the Isle of Wight and had to be towed to a Scottish dockyard in Rosyth for repairs to her propeller shaft. What seemed like a minor issue has proven to be anything but; and the HMS Prince of Wales has been stuck in port for months. Shipbuilder Babcock has remained focused on addressing the problems, but it likely won’t be resolved until spring 2023 at the very earliest.
The issue over the readiness of the Royal Navy has become a point of contention within the British government. The UK’s Labour’s Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said recently that the Conservative-controlled government needs to be honest about when the ship will return to the water.
“When threats are rising and the number of Navy ships are set to fall, we need our fleet at sea, not stuck in the dock,” Healey told reporters. “HMS Prince of Wales is a NATO flagship and ministers cannot allow problems to undermine the ability of our armed forces to lead joint exercises.”
The current chief of defence staff Admiral Sir Tony Radakin called the problems “deeply frustrating.” At the same time, a spokesman for the Royal Navy added, “Repairs to HMS Prince of Wales’ starboard shaft are expected to be completed by spring.”
Despite the issues with HMS Prince of Wales, it could be worse – Russia’s flagship aircraft cruiser, Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, has been undergoing a refit that has lasted years. Just last week, the carrier suffered damage in what was only the most recent fire to break out on the warship.
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Author Experience and Expertise: A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
