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3 days Ago By Freddie Webb
The 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier, housed in Portsmouth Naval Base, is currently at the head of the UK Carrier Strike Group (UKCSG). She set off from the city last Tuesday (April 22) and is bound for the Indo-Pacific region on an eight-month mission . Hundreds of people lined the Hot Walls and The Round Tower in Old Portsmouth to watch HMS Prince of Wales depart, with the £3.
2bn warship not due to return until Christmas. Various military exercises and diplomatic visits will be undertaken during Operation Highmast, with the UKCSG due to visit Japan, Australia and elsewhere. Naval forces from Norway, Canada and Spain are permanent fixtures of the group alongside other Royal Navy vessels, various aircraft and drones.
Captain of the UK Carrier Strike Group, Commodore James Blackmore, previously said the operation is the biggest this century in terms of capability. “It’s a huge privilege to take the carrier strike group to the Indo-Pacific”, he added. “It’s a global deployment which is international by design and encompasses 13 different nations in the strike group.
“It’s about demonstrating globally our support for international order. The UK Carrier Strike Group capability is the cornerstone of the UK’s conventional deterrence. This deployment will contribute to that throughout, and plays to that secure at home and strong abroad agenda.
“The F-35s are utterly phenomenal, and it’s a force multiplier compared to previous generations of aircraft. Numbers will never be as large as those Second World War carrier decks we all recall, but in terms of capability, it is the largest amount of sovereign airpower we’ve deployed. It’ll be a potent deployed combat power.
” Watching the aircraft carrier leave Portsmouth, armed forces minister Luke Pollard added : “We should be under no doubt that anyone seeking to threaten the carrier, or any of the ships alongside her, that we possess formidable capabilities. We will defend the carrier and the other ships. Anyone thinking about that should really think again.
” The News was invited by the Royal Navy to a media event the week before HMS Prince of Wales left Portsmouth. Our photographer Chris Moorhouse took several pictures of views from her flight deck, showing parts of the dockyard and several landmarks. Click through all the images below.
1 . HMS Prince of Wales flight deck Pictures taken on HMS Prince of Wales, berthed at HMNB Portsmouth, ahead of the Carrier Strike Group deployment in the forthcoming Operation Highmast. | Chris Moorhouse (160425-40) Photo Sales Related topics: HMS Prince of Wales Royal Navy.
