Aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has arrived in Scotland for a logistics stop.

The Royal Navy say that the 65,000-tonne aircraft has returned to Glen Mallen on the Clyde in Scotland for a “routine logistics visit and also hopes to visit Liverpool on her return leg to Portsmouth at the end of the month”.

Airspace will be restricted from 0500 on March 14 until 2359 on March 20, when the 65,000-tonne vessel is set to begin its return to Portsmouth. The restriction applies across a large area of the Clyde as well as Loch Long, with no aircraft allowed below 6000 feet.

However, pre-scheduled flights as well as manned aircraft being by Police Scotland, the Scottish Ambulance Service or Coastguard for search and rescue will not be prohibited.

This will be the first time the vessel has visited the Northern Ammunition Jetty at Glen Mallan near Faslane since it was upgraded.

According to a news release on the upgrade work:

“We awarded a £67m contract to VolkerStevin in 2019. Alongside them, we worked with managing agent Jacobs, which provided engineering and professional services, as well as designer Arch Henderson. In completing this major project, £20m was spent with local suppliers and small and medium enterprises in Scotland. The jetty was last upgraded in the 1970s and had reached the end of its economic life. The upgrade work has not only extended the life of the jetty by an estimated fifty years, but has also made the site accessible for the Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

In fact, HMS Queen Elizabeth visited part way through the work, back in March 2021, in preparation for her first operational deployment. This was not originally planned but became necessary when the scale of the ship’s deployment increased, presenting the team with a challenge to make the jetty operational in time for her arrival. Everyone involved, from DIO, VolkerStevin, Jacobs and the various subcontractors worked closely together to enable HMS Queen Elizabeth to berth at the unfinished jetty, which she did successfully.”

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

19 COMMENTS

    • No, QEC had a had the Top Secret bag-of-spanners-detectors fitted.

      This enables QEC to detect Russian subs as the leave their home port.

      The clue was in Hi t for the Red October when The Tractor Drive was engaged by Marco Ramius. Unfortunately we hadn’t realised a real tractor was used so missed a trick on this for years.

      • Considering what is going on in Ukraine with poor state of Russian maintance (I assume due to corruption, which is ironic as Putin got into power doing the same), it does make you wonder how bad a state the Russian subs are in. RN subs are regularly seen with some of their accoustic panels missing and you have to assume that includes semi decent maintance schedules. Assume bad maintance and you would have to guess the Russian subs are missing most of them.

    • I’m sure the Flux Capacitor will deal with any time Tavel issues…. Greg, don’t tell anyone, but I heard that they are taking on a few DeLorean DMC12’s to supplement the F35b’s…

      • Is it true Lockheed Martin have fitted a CT40 compatible turret to the De Loreans? A catapult-launched Ajax replacement with time travel would have to be a bonus. The Boxers will be replaced by Dame Angela Lansbury on a broomstick.

  1. Anyone any idea on why the QE is in Glen Mallen. I always thought that this was where munitions would be loaded unloaded.

    • Shes just completed a 3 month repair and refit after her previous voyage and will be taking on fresh munitions and doing training for new crew before returning to Portsmouth where she will be on high readiness. Likely she would deploy soon after to join PoW as I think the plan before Ukraine was they would sail together in a Carrier Battle Group this year.

      • That will be some sight 2 UK carriers in operation together. Hopefully each with 12+ F35Bs on board. Might need to ask USMC or Italian navy to help out with jet numbers.

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