HMS Prince of Wales will assume the role of the UK’s flagship next week during her visit to Liverpool, taking over from her sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth.
This marks a significant milestone in her five-year Royal Navy career as she prepares for the upcoming UK Carrier Strike Group 2025 deployment, which will see her operate east of the Suez Canal on a global mission.
Britain’s two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will alternate the flagship title, ensuring one is always ready for priority operations while the other undergoes maintenance.
HMS Prince of Wales will officially take over as flagship at 10am on Monday, 2nd December, in Liverpool. While no formal ceremony marks the change, the two carriers recently sailed with each other in UK waters as part of their respective operational preparations.
Captain Will Blackett, Commanding Officer of HMS Prince of Wales, expressed his pride in the ship’s new status, saying:
“This is a proud moment for HMS Prince of Wales. We’ve been training hard, ably assisted by our sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth. We’re ready, we’re excited, and look forward to taking the next step in the ship’s life.”
Captain Will King, Commanding Officer of HMS Queen Elizabeth, congratulated the crew of HMS Prince of Wales, stating:
“Every sailor in HMS Queen Elizabeth knows the pride that comes from serving in the RN Flagship. I wish HMS Prince of Wales every success taking on the title – they will do a fantastic job. As her sister-ship, we stand ready to support her in every way.”
HMS Prince of Wales has recently completed rigorous preparations for her role in next year’s global deployment. This included participation in Exercise Strike Warrior, held in the North Sea, where she embarked F-35B Lightning jets from 809 Naval Air Squadron for the first time. The exercise tested the carrier strike group across a variety of operational scenarios, including live ordnance exercises at Cape Wrath.
Since departing Portsmouth last month, the Royal Navy say that HMS Prince of Wales has sailed 1,500 nautical miles and conducted 71 sorties, accumulating 210 flying hours. The training scenarios included live bomb drops using Paveway munitions and coordination with allied forces, showcasing the integrated capabilities of the UK Carrier Strike Group.
This week, the carrier has been in Glenmallan, Scotland, replenishing ammunition in preparation for her upcoming mission. She is now en route to Liverpool for a seven-day visit, offering her 800-strong crew the opportunity to engage with local schools, civic leaders, and community initiatives, while also giving the public a chance to learn more about life aboard the Portsmouth-based warship.
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Be a better photo if they had some planes on deck or do we not have enough yet?
Don’t start up setting the posters 😏
Yep, it’s sad to see an aircraft carrier carrying nothing on the flight deck!
Grow up
Does someone need a hug?
Stock photo.
There are loads of planes on both the decks, they are the new F-37 planes that are invisible – Elon Musk doesn’t know about them yet
Ahhhh, lovely to see the decks filled with the new top secret F-37 planes that Elon Musk doesn’t know about, they are totally invisible to the eye…
Download Photoshop and knock yourself out. You wouldn’t be the first.
Sailing two side by side suggests that there are now sufficient crew available for a crew change if required if one carrier is away from home for a long time.
Or one operating as an aircraft carrier and one as a large command ship for other operations.
They were both crewed at the expense of the Albions.
That is why there was no RN crew for Bulwark.
Won’t this simultaneous use wear them out? We were meant to have a “one on, one off” policy. Feeling a bit wary about their deployments at the moment.
They are designed to last 50+ years.
That’s not what I meant and you know it.
Remember the SSN Warspite gaining cracks in her hull by the late 80s?
We were told it was one in, one out, over a period of 50 years. That is not happening. I am going with the original plan- it’s not me you need to argue with, but the originators of this new policy.
They’re only operating in short periods together, the setup is still one at days notice and one at 30 days notice. Rotating them like Albion and Bulwark meanwhile will seriously wear them down due to neglect
Most of the degradation of the Albions was to do with them being at very, very extended readiness.
The HV system in particular hadn’t been designed to sit idle getting damp!
I think this goes back to Cameron’s 2015 announcement that both Carriers would be crewed.
Now the LPDs are binned I’d rather keep both at a higher level of readiness.
Will will take over from Will…
Will will take over from Will… we wish Will and Will well…
That gave me the Willies.
We have the ship but the flag capability has been gapped and will enter service on 2029, but will ensure we have an up to date, cost effective, modern, increased lethality flag which will flutter in any weather!!!!!!
should have gone to Specsavers, look again chaps, and use your imagination, the reason you cant see the carriers full of planes/helicopters/and the other aircraft, is because they are in stealth mode – silly ].
if you cant see them, the enemy cant see them ????
[soon be Xmas lol
Glad to see the RN floating gin palaces are fully operational, but still dependant on 617 for aircraft to make them relevant.
And 809 NAS. Interesting how blinkered people can be when they don’t want to see.
I would assume any sensible captain would keep any aircraft not on alert safe inside the Hager deck. Stop prying eyes, stops unnecessary salt water damage ?
I think the Hanger holds more than a squadron, we can’t deploy more than that at the moment & I am guessing but more likely in these pre-war times we cannot afford to allow more than a half dozen to be on her. The rest surly are needed for UK homeland defence.
F35 is not used for homeland defence unless in extremis, that’s the RAF 11 Go, ASCS, and Typhoons job.
The F35 force is still building up due to the slow build rate and pilot training issues we inflicted on ourselves.
Now all we need is a Raleigh, Drake or Nelson to lead us. 😎❤️✌️
Same old comments that are now so ingrained they’ll never stop.
Tell me, should we scrap RAF Airfields that don’t have aircraft lined up to be drooled over?
Of course not.
These are strategic assets. What aircraft we have would deploy to them when needed. They do not need to have aircraft on deck every time they move!
Meanwhile, 12.5 BILLION is going from MoD budget, so taxpayers money, to effectively fund BAES research department to develop GCAP, with no useable hardware for the RAF at the end of it.
And after that, we pay BAES to build it.
Since when did the MIC get so powerful? Don’t private companies invest their own money to build things for market any more?
These carriers with no aircraft on deck are the least of our worries.
But, but… GCAP will be so COOL! With Lasers, pew pew, and radars, and missiles, etc.
It is definitely a bad thing that privately developed projects have become a thing of the past for the UK. Forcing the T31 competitors to put forwards designs to meet the budget, for example, meant that on the whole the thing has been done much more cheaply than if the MoD “collaborated” with babcock for development.
A lot of projects feel like “the contractors paying a fighter jet in order to get as much money as possible off the MoD” than “The MoD paying money to get as good a fighter jet as possible off the contractors”.
The thing is, I support GCAP, but I support HS2 too, and I’m not aware of the D of Ts small budget paying for that.
With huge national endeavours like GCAP, and AUKUS, and Nuclear, where the priority is industry for the first two and national insurance/politics for the third, why does MoD pay, meaning it’s our conventional forces that get it in the neck.
The “primary moan” of all in all these defence forums such as our UKDJ is lack of numbers, lack of mass.
None of these massive programs which drain MoDs budget address that, and of course all politicians will ignore the issue.
“…should we scrap RAF Airfields that don’t have aircraft lined up to be drooled over?”
Shhh. The Treasury might be listening.
😳
At least airfields have aircraft, we have two Carries yet not enough aircraft to fill one. And no AWACS, And they been in service 6/7 years. Do wait until the 20% through there life span then have enough?
Hmme
Well BAe developed the Typhoon demonstrator privately had their own pathway to turn that into a commercial option.
However, HMG forced them into a Eurofudge replicating the Tornado project.
The trouble is that given how tiny the UK’s conventional budget has become nobody is going to bet the farm on developing an aircraft that will then be built at a glacial pace that doesn’t earn back the upfront costs.
Gone are the days when an Air Ministry order would be for 100 planes by yesterday as the first batch!
Even if you did it like that RAF couldn’t absorb them as the institutional mindset and process are so sclerotic.
Evening mate.
Thanks. I remember the Typhoon demo aircraft of course but was not aware they funded that.
I believe MoD paid for Taranis too, more money gone, even if some might find its way to Tempest.
While all you say is of course correct, these programs are killing UK conventional defence numbers.
Yup, whist we wait for f35b deliveries let’s console ourselves that every f35b we do have can be deployed to our carriers when required. Very flexible.
For all those bemoaning the lack of A/c on the deck, I’d say the RN were astute, there would be no wheels left in the morning. Scouscers be scousers, like.