Work On Final Block Underway At Rosyth

Work is underway on the final key component of an aircraft carrier being assembled at Rosyth dockyards.

The last block of the HMS Prince of Wales - a 65-thousand tonne vessel being built in 25 parts across the UK - has arrived and will take around a year to finish. Workshops, a mooring deck and a briefing room are all being build by steel workers at the Fife docks. 

Tony Graham, Former Director of Ships at the Ministry of Defence , formally marked the construction by operating a plasma steel cutting machine that  will shape the steel for the final sponson.  He said:

"I’m incredibly proud to have been given the honour of starting the steel cutting for the last block to be produced in this historic and strategically important ship-building programme. It’s only when you see HMS Prince of Wales in person that you can fully comprehend the scale of the engineering and construction task that the Aircraft Carrier Alliance is undertaking.

"I would like to pay tribute to the many thousands of skilled tradespeople, engineers, planners and all of the project staff across the Alliance who are making the construction of these carriers a reality."

While the steel for the sponson is being cut at two sites across the UK, final assembly of the unit will take place in Rosyth. The block will be in a state of manufacture for around a year, with the assembly of the unit onto HMS Prince of Wales scheduled for May 2016.

The Queen Elizabeth Class will be the centrepiece of Britain’s defence capability for the 21st century. Each 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier will provide the armed forces with a four-acre military operating base, which can travel up to 500 miles per day to be deployed anywhere around the world. Operating the Joint Strike Fighter Lightning II jets and a number of types of helicopter, the QE Class will be versatile enough to be used across the full spectrum of military activity from warfighting to providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief.