HMS Prince of Wales has completed a period of maintenance in Stavanger, Norway, and is prepared to continue Operation Firecrest, the ship’s company announced on Saturday.

Posted to X, the carrier’s official account confirmed stores had been taken on and that the ship had remained “operational at all times” during the period alongside. The message closed with: “The Nation’s Flagship is good to go for the next phase of Operation Firecrest.”

The stay in Stavanger had been extended to address what the MoD described as “a minor technical issue” identified during the carrier’s port visit. “HMS Prince of Wales is currently conducting a port visit to Stavanger as part of the Carrier Strike Group’s deployment across the North Atlantic and Arctic, we expect her to set sail in the coming days,” an MoD spokesperson said.

Operation Firecrest was announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Munich Security Conference on 14 February 2026. The deployment sends the UK Carrier Strike Group, led by HMS Prince of Wales, across the North Atlantic and into the High North in response to increased Russian naval activity in the region. The government has said the operation will involve major exercises alongside the United States, Canada, and Northern European allies, including partners within the Joint Expeditionary Force.

The deployment includes exercises alongside NATO’s Standing Naval Maritime Group 1, which the UK is leading throughout 2026, with the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon serving as the NATO maritime group’s command ship. The government has cited a 30 percent increase in Russian navy vessels in UK waters over the past two years as part of the justification for the deployment, alongside broader concern over the security of critical undersea infrastructure such as fibre-optic cables and energy pipelines in the North Atlantic.

HMS Prince of Wales returned to Portsmouth in November 2025 following Operation Highmast, an eight-month Indo-Pacific deployment during which the strike group conducted over 1,000 sorties and engaged with more than 30 partner nations.

The turnaround before Firecrest was around four months, considerably shorter than the year or more typically required by US nuclear-powered carriers following a comparable deployment. The carrier sailed from Portsmouth on 24 April, embarking Merlin and Wildcat helicopters before heading north, arriving in Stavanger in mid-May ahead of the Dynamic Mongoose exercise.

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25 COMMENTS

    • No F-35B’s are available for Operation Firecrest, I’m pretty sure the photo is from last years Op Highmast. Also the embarked “Merlin and Wildcat helicopters” amount to just two each type. For nearly a decade now, the QEC have been basically a crazily expensive way of occasionally getting a handful of helicopters to sea. Even when F-35B’s are embarked, there are major shortfalls, e.g. inadequate weapons, poor serviceability, no AAR, limited AEW, et al. By comparison, the CdeG CSG has become the pride of France. Whilst an interesting example of what can be done with just Euro 130 m (£112 m) is the Portuguese LHD D. João II (A5209), allowing for inflation the RN could have had nearly a 100 of those for same cost as the QEC!

      • France has a part time carrier force. You have very long periods with no carriers avaliable at all. So be careful before coming on here with some top trumps bull shit

        • RB is technically correct (the best type). Rafale’s do have an excellent availability record, but they were also flying with Super Etendards; so are very mature platforms. F-35s are new (yes I know, not that new) but they are working up. C-DG is also a bit of a mess, she is too small to be nuclear. But, even that aside, the new CVN will be only one.

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    • Ability to (OoE) Obliterate our Enemies !
      Was just thinking about that Hegseth South Park episode last year ~ now I can’t get that tune out of my head :/

    • I dunno. I think of it more as a ‘military’ phrase that a lot of ex-service guys use than a ‘Yank’ phrase. Not sure why you’d find it offensive, as it describes the condition of the ship rather succinctly.

      • I was just thinking outside the box from the get go. 🤦‍♂️

        Not sure how you deduced that I found It offensive but I guess you just read It that way and needed to Vent your displeasure. Either way, thanks for your comment, I’ll work on my issues.
        Y’all have a nice day. 👍

        • If was the FFS. It sounded angry. Sorry. I don’t always get your humor. You are a pretty funny guy. I missed it this time. On the flipside, I’m not venting displeasure. Just wasn’t sure why it seemed like you were offended by their phrase. I hope you have a nice day too.

          • Hey, that’s a great reply, thanks for that.

            My humour can be a little odd ! (I have another example below) 😁😁No offence Intended.

  3. Hi Craig I think you will find HMS Dragon is deployed in the Gulf with the French Carrier Group. The RN Commodore has hoisted her flag aboard the German frigate Sachsen. Due to the navy being a tad short on ships.

    • I’m unsure as to whether they’re still operating from Sachsen, or if they’ve subsequently moved to Duncan or the QE. Either way, there are British flag-capable ships in the group.

  5. US carriers actually ‘do war’ on a lot of our deployments. More to the point, they are often at sea for far longer than the UK carriers. Your Operation Highmast didn’t involve actually dropping bombs on targets and racing from one end of the world to the other or being ‘extended’, so of course you can ‘turn around’ faster.

    • One day you might Win One. 😁😁😁😁

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      (Where’s Ray tonight ?)

      • Eh. The French like to say ‘we have no friends, only interests’. Not bothered by the current travails. These tiffs come and go. I just don’t understand the endless comparisons of the QEs to anything in the US inventory. They’re unique and built for different roles. It seems like the author is ‘compensating’.

        • There Is a Famous Viral Youtube chap at a Football match (Soccer) he says “You got no friends” and “You want some ?”.
          British humour can be complicated at times.

          • I generally love British humor. The Benny Hill show was one of my favorite tv shows growing up (even if I was a little young at the time). I’ll try to remember that some things get lost in translation. On the whole, I’m pretty hard to offend. I just took this as a spirited jab at the US and our tendencies to go off half-cocked sometimes. It’s fine. Have a peaceful and lovely day.

            • 👍 Currently chilling in the “Van” (RV) overlooking the English Channel (Trump hasn’t changed the name yet) In a little Storm, watching the World go by. And some Russian Tankers !!!

              It’s a lovely way to spend the day Jomo, thanks.

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  7. I gather that “F-35B’s” will now be embarked on POW before she heads to New York and the International Fleet Review 250. Whether the plural means more than two, we can but wait and see. I presume that the primary purpose is for crew training and to make her flightdeck less embarrassingly empty during the review, rather than for any operational duties.

  8. I apologise for being an unbeliever! Reddit is reporting that 4 F-35B’s of 809 NAS embarked on POW yesterday, another 4 followed today, and a final 4 is expected soon. So a full strength squadron of 12 aircraft! Assuming there are still 6 F-35B’s of 617 Sqd in Cyprus, there can’t be many flyable let alone operational aircraft left at Marham.

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