Royal Navy carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is scheduled to leave Portsmouth at 16:40 on Wednesday 16 July to begin sea trials, marking the transition from the first to the second phase of a planned overhaul.
The carrier will test new navigation and propulsion systems in UK waters before sailing north to Rosyth for a seven-month dry docking at Babcock Dockyard. The work follows nine months of engineering and crew training in Portsmouth as part of the ship’s mid-life maintenance, described by the Navy as equivalent to a car MOT.
“We have achieved an enormous amount in 2025, with a significant upgrade to our propulsion system being the most notable item amidst a wide range of engineering projects tackled alongside our partners from industry,” said Captain Claire Thompson, the ship’s commanding officer.
“Although HMS Queen Elizabeth is now due a seven-month docking period in Rosyth after a short period of sea trials, my focus remains generating a highly capable team that can take the ship from our docking period and work towards front-line duties.”
Sea trials will be overseen by the Royal Navy’s Fleet Operational Standards and Training (FOST) teams, assessing the crew’s ability to manage emergencies including damage control, fire and flood response.
The docking in Rosyth will allow inspection and upgrades to systems inaccessible while afloat. The ship’s company will be split between accommodation in HMS Caledonia in Fife and facilities in Portsmouth, with sailors expected to engage with Scottish affiliates during the stay.
The maintenance period follows six years of high operational tempo, including a 2021 global deployment to the Indo-Pacific and participation in NATO exercises. The current work is intended to prepare the carrier for its next front-line mission.
“mid-life maintenance” didnt realise she’d been commissioned for 25 years already.
same
After 9 months of maintenance, the plan is she sails round the UK a couple of times then goes back into another 7 months maintenance?
Up to now she has been kept in a deployable state in case it was needed. Now it needs drydock work
Just to amplify.
The first load of upgrades were, likely done, in such a way as to allow the carrier to be deployable in a set number of days.
This could well have been to avoid the egg-on-face type of cancellation that occurred due to the prop shaft debacle last time round. So it is pretty understandable if the other QEC was kept close to ready. Good to have two of them!
Now there are various things like painting the hull/anti fouling and no doubt other things that won’t be announced that need dry dock time.
These things need to be regularly if she is going to have the slated 50 year hull life without turning in HMS Hermes…..and if you ever saw Hermes close up in the 1980s you will know exactly that I mean….
To be fair the Happy H was an odd story of a ship that should never have been.. all the centaurs were designed in a rush for a specific purpose with very little eye beyond the war.. and they had no chance of keeping up with the needs of larger and larger aircraft.. they were all build for the 1940s.. but due to a budget restraint Cold War were not commissioned to the mid to late 1950s and were essentially out of date by the 1960s.. it’s a remarkable set of coincidences that ended with the Hermes still being an aircraft carrier into the 21c…when all of her sisters left service in the 1960s, or battled on for a decade as amphibious vessels.
Do we know what propulsion upgrades were installed, or are they referring to the prop shaft fixes?
Its a propeller scraper and polisher. It’s diver deployed and vacuums up the crud as it goes. That’s your major upgrade.🤣
I wonder what weapon upgrades will be installed? New advanced anti-drone systems must be high on the list of urgent requirements, and if they aren’t, then I would suggest they should be. Currently, drone saturation is the most worrying weapon, designed to overwhelm countermeasures, especially when a vessel is in port.
There are no weapon upgrades planned
POW Wales has had at least 2 trainable decoy launchers quietly fitted before her departure on CSG 25 this year, it’s unknown whether they are the sparsely seen torpedo countermeasure system currently in service with the RN or the newly acquired Ancilia system as they are both visually similar and there had been no announcement on it.
Other than that possibly also being fitted to QE there are no planned upgrades to the carriers weapon systems in this upgrade period, the SDR recommendations might significantly change that in future MLU’s.
It’s probably the Torpedo defence system. Ancilla hasn’t been delivered yet
Actually, perhaps a potentially very interesting question. Given SDR recommendation to incorporate missile defense on the QE class, if this goal is explicitly addressed in the DIP, the RN may surprise many by saluting smartly and moving out. Potentially designing, if not installing, a CAMM farm, or trainable launchers, or dare to contemplate a MK-41 installation? Certainly feasible to install the 30mm mounts, weaps evidently in inventory. RN may just possibly have additional funds available this autumn, and a mandate to increase both offensive and defensive lethality of the fleet. 🤔🤞🤞
Fingers crossed
Most realistic option perhaps would be to get the 40mm in in place of Phalanx, and would do wonders for close in drone defence as well as missiles.
Of course, CAMM would be great, but the problems are well known.
It did not talk about missiles defences it talked about attack missiles
FormerUSAF, I’m normally accused by my fellow bloggers for being alarmist, but on paper, both QE carriers are particularly vulnerable in port as proved when a drone landed on a carrier in Portsmouth some time ago. Considering warnings from several foes in recent months, a third-party strike on any RN vessel, especially the QE’s, needs to be taken seriously. Multiple drone attacks from a van parked within easy reach of the carrier dock is no longer a wildly fictitious scenario but a harsh reality. The MOD can’t afford to wait until a serious breach in security causes enough damage to require lengthy repair; it must be one step ahead. At sea, the AFM scenario is unlikely, and I guess a more protracted process of effective countermeasures development is needed.
Don’t they mean ‘mid-life crisis maintenance’…
Don’t time fly (which is more than those 12 Bs the carrier could have looked forward too ) seems only a couple of years since they were lowering that mast to get it under that Scottish bridge.
“under that Scottish bridge.”
Huge giveaway that your not a Brit, one of the most famous bridges in the U.K.
This is fantastic news, freeing up valuable jetty space for all the other ships desperately waiting for 9 months rest and maintenence.
“2nd phase of a planned overhaul”? Now off to dry dock at Rosyth? Sounds like ‘mothballing’ to me.
You’re mistaking hallucinating for hearing 🤷🏻♂️
No. It’s for her mandotary 5 year hull inspection required by Lloyds rules for vessels of this size. This is what large deck aircraft carrier maintenance looks like if you don’t want it to end up like that Russian junk, and still be in good nick 40+ years down the line.
Well said.
I moan about lack of numbers and cuts. I moan about the duplicity of HMG when it comes to defence.
But I just do not get the complaints and snipes about this, seems routine to me.
“Moan moan moan” that’s all you seem to do !
😁
Reminds me of the wife🙃
It’s very much routine mate. And the RNs approach to the carrier maintenance will greatly improve availability over the years. Very large complex warships need lots of maintenance. Just like the US Navy has 11 carriers. But only 4-5 are routinely available in the water at any one time. 6 on a good day. 2 of those will be in pre-deployment training and workups.
It’s 6 years for a Naval ship not 5 !
Maybe for a Destroyer or a Frigate size vessel.
Perhaps one of the grown ups has realised that a CATOBAR is needed to maximise the vessel…..
And what will you put on those Cats?
Bedford Array to be fitted?
This timetable seems to fit in with when POW needs to go in for her maintenance and upgrades. One out, one in, was always the plan.
“Six years of high operational Tempo” Really? I’m glad she didn’t have to go into action.
Rafael would be a good place to start if we are going to be a European force.
No chance