HMS Queen Elizabeth has left Rosyth following her extended maintenance period and is now in the Firth of Forth, with the aircraft carrier expected to head out to sea in the coming days.

A Restricted Area (Temporary) is in force between 19 and 24 April 2026 in the vicinity of North Queensferry, covering operations linked to the vessel’s departure. The measures, introduced under Article 239 of the Air Navigation Order 2016, are intended to support security during the carrier’s movement.

Under the restrictions, unmanned aircraft are prohibited from flying below 1,400 feet above mean sea level within a defined area over the Firth of Forth between 0100 on 19 April and 2300 on 24 April. The regulations explicitly do not apply to manned aircraft. There is also a 200m nautical exclusion zone around the vessels.

HMS Queen Elizabeth has been in Rosyth since entering a planned dry dock and maintenance period in August 2025. The work forms part of the carrier’s routine lifecycle and includes inspections, upgrades and certification activities that require the vessel to be out of the water.

The ship

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the lead ship of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers and one of the largest warships ever built for the UK. Ordered in 2008 and constructed at Rosyth, the vessel was commissioned in December 2017 and entered operational service in 2020. With a full load displacement of around 80,600 tonnes and a length of 284 metres, the carrier is designed to project air power globally and support a wide range of maritime operations.

The ship is built around an integrated electric propulsion system and can carry a tailored air wing centred on F-35B Lightning II aircraft alongside helicopters including Merlin, Wildcat and Apache. It is equipped with systems such as the S1850M long-range radar and Artisan 3D radar, and is defended by Phalanx close-in weapon systems and 30mm guns. The carrier can accommodate around 1,600 personnel and is designed to operate as the centrepiece of a UK Carrier Strike Group.

George Allison
George Allison
George Allison is the founder and editor of the UK Defence Journal. He holds a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in naval and cyber security topics. George has appeared on national radio and television to provide commentary on defence and security issues. Twitter: @geoallison
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43 COMMENTS

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    • J,
      Currently FFBNW, would presume the QE Class would be retrofitted w/ full complement, after the commencement of hostilities and before deployment of CSG(s). In the interim, RN is preoccupied conserving £s fleet wide, regardless of the amount involved and/or mission capability impact.

      • With the plight of the navy in the full glare of publicity if the commitment to spending must prioritise advocate the fittings of CATOBAR to be given the maximum priority to maintain the s status and effectiveness of the capacity of the UK to operate a premium carrier operation and not having two very expensive ornaments in Portsmouth

  3. So if the prince of Wales is stomping off to the high north and Greenland on op firecrest this spring/summer.. I assume Elizabeth is going to be doddering around the UK regenerating all Summer long.

    • Jonathan, the planning assumption always was that we would only have one carrier at sea at any given time.

      • Yes but the RN has essentially ignored that and has much as they can they have run both.. I suspect that is one of the reasons they could not crew an Albion.

        • There was a choice to be made. The 2010 review and putting one Albion in reserve and making 5000 redundancy’s was the root of the cause

    • Oh and unlike the US latest carrier can actually fly F-35s. Some toy, let’s hope it’s laundry doesn’t go up in smoke mind, such a thing might be considered broken in some minds.

      • That is just so embarrassing… You can’t get to the fight. You don’t have the weapons to even do anything with it and no escorts. Yep, you’re winning

        • We are fine thanks Ray. We have no fight to get to and our focus is on supporting NATO.

          I think Spy is simply pointing out that the US has teething problems with their kit in the same way as everyone else. The British carriers are an excellent piece of hardware and our carrier stike groups are quite excellent. We will be upgrading to focus on modern warfare with help and advice from our allies in Ukraine who are experts at dealing with threats from peer adversaries.

          The US is a valued ally however it would be wise to remember that even the US cannot achieve world peace on it’s own and would be wise to remember who it’s friends are.

          • Good, sensible post.
            Sadly Ray only seems interested in “mines bigger than yours” Top Trumps.
            A pity Americans cannot be more like the humility shown by the Artemis II crew.

        • What fight ?? The one the US supposedly won 50 odd days ago? The one that Israel told you to start? The fight you can’t win ? That one ?

        • U got to a fight, got the strait of Hormuz shut down and screwed everyone in the proces. Now ask urself for.what, because your master Benjamin Netanyahu said it was something Ur people needed to do.

          Your leader don’t even understand that NATO is a defensive pact used only once when THE USA was attacked sept 11. This war isnt defensive, it attack on Iran

          We don’t need NATO help, we don’t want NATO help, ……….help

      • Not sure it’s worth the argument. The US will undoubtably fix these issues they have with their cariiers just as we have fixed our carriers, T45s and the T26 and T31s will start coming online. If the UK adapts quickly we will be in a much better place than the Americans but should perhaps avoid a p*ssing competition with the likes of T as he feels quite at home making stuff up. Our problem is motivating our own politicians.

      • The latest US Carrier is actually the Kennedy, which was fitted for F-35 operations pierside at Newport News. This is actually one of the reasons for its delay in commissioning. It has been stated that ships and squadrons based on the west coast of the US had priority for F-35s anyway, and Ford is an East Coast ship. But, hey, spread your disinformation as you will.

    • The weapons are called F35B and yes we can operate them as has just been demonstrated on an 8 month long worldwide deployment . You must have missed that one .

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    • Think Venturer is under the scaffolding on the extreme right of picture. Disappointing but unsurprisingly slow as first in class. Hopefully they are ironing out the creases for Active to benefit.

  9. Are there enough F35s for both ships to maintain a credible air group at the same time? If not, is the projection that there will be? If not, what?

    • Depends on how you define ‘credible’. My sense of it is that we still struggle to deploy 24 aircraft for an extended period of time as witnessed by the fact that Prince of Wales only had 24 aircraft for the latter part of CSG25 deployment. We have taken delivery of I few more aircraft since then I believe but the pilot training program and the availability of the aircraft are both proving difficult to get up to speed.

      I would define a credible air wing as 24 F-35B supported by a mix of AEW and air to air refueling drones in the short term with combat drones in the medium term. That would probably require about 60 F-35B in the fleet given the demands of the OCU, maintenance pool, etc. in order to deploy those 24 aircraft on one carrier routinely. The second carrier might get 6 to 8 F-35B for training and experimentation with those number. We are still a long way from that.

      Regenerating the West’s military and industrial capabilities is proving to be hard than most politicians ever thought, it seems.

      • Why do you think air to air refueling drones are a factor in a credible air wing?

        Onboard AAR’s role in 90% of cases is to be used during a catobar carriers during launch and recovery due to fouled decks.

        F-35B has enough legs for anything we need to use it for. And if not, just like the USN right now (and always in times of war), is reliant on large AAR platforms for refueling strikes.

        • Could the following be a credible air group if we absolutely had to field both carriers at the same time:

          On each carrier:
          – 16-18 F-35Bs
          – 10 Merlin Mk2
          – 4 Wildcat
          – Army Apaches (if land elements are required)

          Pie in the sky, but perhaps possible for a short time?

        • Do you think a STOVL carrier can’t have a ‘fouled deck’ or need ‘recovery refueling’? The reality is that any carrier intending to do strike operations should have its own AEW, air refueling, and organic EW assets. The USN frequently operates out of range of USAF assets. As far as F-35B ‘having enough range’, everybody always needs more range. The further you can move the boat from the threat, the better off you are in terms of keeping it safe.

          • No a STOVL carrier cannot have a ‘fouled deck’. Its not dependent on arresting gear. Multiple options and spots for landing on remain.

            The USN carrier air wings ALWAYS uses land based AAR for any strike operations that require AAR…it did so off Vietnam, it did so off Afghanistan (provided by the RAF) and its doing so right now in the Arabian Sea…carrier based AAR cannot provide enough fuel offload at range to do anything more than extend a couple of aircrafts strike, that is the case today, it was the case in the past…and it will be the case with MQ-25…

            If you want more range…design an aircraft with greater range…or build missiles with greater range (payloads not platforms…).

            QE Class has AEW, and will get longer duration AEW in the future…organic EW would be nice, but isn’t as critical if you’re using an all LO airwing…

            Also…if you’d asked any USN Air Boss 30 years ago….they’d have also added ‘Fixed Wing ASW’ to the list….strange though that as soon as the USN loses that capability it ceases to be necessary….

            • So, outside the ‘technicality’ of what you’re calling a fouled deck, there are very much things that can leave a plane ‘stuck in the pattern’. We saw this during CSG 2025, when an F-35B found itself circling supposedly because of weather. As to the ‘we have multiple spots to land’ you do until you don’t. If your deck is ‘full’, you’re not necessarily going to have spare spaces to land if there is a problem or accident on that deck.
              As far as ‘there are other things’ that are needed, sure. It would be great to have a fixed-wing ASW plane. I would call the list given a bare minimum, not the maximum. I wish the Vikings were still in the US Navy, but we had our own budget cuts to contend with.

  10. George has put this article up again for comments rematch? The carriers we can argue endlessly about but at least they are working and paid for, while we wait for t26’s.

  11. There is at least hope for an improved navy in the next 5 years or so new t26s and t31 arriving the t45s sorted by then the carriers faults seem to be sorted.
    Get uk weapons on f35 and it will be a potent force.
    Hopefully new supply ships the final piece of the carrier strike groups .
    We just need more money to get it all sorted and these stupid politicians to supply it.

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