How UK Tried & Failed to Get Rid of it’s Second Aircraft Carrier
This aircraft carrier is like a red-headed child out of Wedlock that nobody wanted, but they couldn’t get rid of her.
Hms Prince of Wales, the sister ship of Hms Queen Elizabeth, is the Royal Navy’s second aircraft carrier.
While this carrier looks mighty and strong on the outside, on the inside things aren’t so good, which is why she got the nickname the “unlucky ship”.
Hms Prince of Wales also has a complicated relationship with its parent, the Government of the United Kingdom.
You see, back in 2010,, as part of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, the British government concluded that the Royal Navy only needed one aircraft carrier, not two.
However, by that time the Navy had already ordered two carriers.
The government wanted to drop the second carrier, but, due to contractual obligations with the shipyards, it would have been more costly to cancel the second carrier and incur the financial penalties than just finish building it.
So the construction of Hms Prince of Wales continued.
The government had decided that they would either sell her to an ally country or simply mothball the carrier right away – that is, immediately retire her and place her in the reserve fleet.
Well, that sounds like a giant waste of money, doesn’t it?
However, as we dug a little deeper, we came to a different conclusion.
Calling Hms Prince of Wales a “waste of money” would be premature, but the reason is Not What You Think.
As the construction of Hms Prince of Wales continued, she was still destined to be adopted by an ally country or put into early retirement, But in 2014,, the carrier’s parent started having second thoughts.
During the 2014 Nato Summit, Prime Minister David Cameron proclaimed that the carrier would be commissioned rather than sold or mothballed.
One year later, in 2015,, the fate of the carrier was sealed.
Hms Prince of Wales was to join the Royal Navy’s family as a result of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
You’d think that would be it – the family lived happily ever after, But you’d be wrong.
In December 2019, just a few months before Hms Prince of Wales was to be commissioned, there were ongoing calls to mothball her yet again.
In fact, such calls continue to this day.
As recently as February 2023, you can find politicians wanting to decommission her for the simple reason of saving cash.
Now here’s the part where the story turns a little dark.
You see, things are not looking that good for the Uk Armed Forces.
Why Some Currently Want to Retire HMS Prince of Wales
A senior Conservative Mp has claimed that Britain’s Armed Forces would “last just five days in a wᴀʀ”.
The British Army is currently the smallest it has been in four centuries.
Back in January 2023, a senior Us general stated that the British Army was no longer regarded as a “tier one force” and continued to clarify: “it’s barely tier two”.
At the same time, the Royal Navy is less than half the size it was during the Falklands wᴀʀ.
Taking into account all the military equipment sent to Ukraine which now needs to be replaced, and the rate of inflation in the United Kingdom, this means that real military spending is in decline.
The British Military needs cash and the government ain’t giving it.
According to the British Ministry of Defense, last year’s budget was 45.9 billion pounds and taking into account a 10% inflation means that military spending must increase by 4.6 billion pounds to 50.5 billion to account for the rising costs.
In fact, the Uk military is requesting between 8 and 11 billion pounds over the next two years just to keep up with inflation.
Yet under current plans, the Uk government wants to raise its defence budget only by 700 million pounds over the next two years.
It should be clear by now that if the British Armed Forces don’t receive more money to keep up with inflation, their only other option is to cut.
And this is where the neck of Hms Prince of Wales comes in – the perfect candidate to be sunk, I mean cut.
Remember when I said this carrier was an “unlucky ship”?
Well, besides the family drama, it just so happens that Hms Prince of Wales tends to spend more time in the drydock … than in water.
Let me elaborate.
When Hms Princes of Wales hits national headlines, most of the time it’s for the wrong reasons.
Why HMS Prince of Wales is an Unlucky Ship
For example, in May 2020, there was flooding aboard the ship, with water gushing to almost seat level due to a burst pipe.
While the incident was described as minor, the aircraft carrier had to return to Portsmouth and cut its five-week sea trials short as a precautionary measure.
In October 2020, there was an even more serious flooding aboard the ship.
The electrical cabinets in one of the engine rooms were submerged for over 24 hours.
It was especially embarrassing for the Royal Navy because at the time the ship was preparing to sail to the Us for the F-35b integration trials.
This trip to America took years of planning, but now the Brits had to say “Sorry, we can’t make it”.
Due to that flooding, the ship was forced to spend 8 months in drydock for repairs.
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In August 2022, while acting as the flagship of Nato, Hms Prince of Wales was scheduled to undertake exercises with the Us Navy during a 3-month trip.
This involved flight trials of the F-35B.
The ship departed Portsmouth and was about to cross the Atlantic to visit the Us, Canada and the Caribbean, but she experienced a mechanical malfunction and had to anchor next to the Isle of Wight to assess the damage.
Divers were sent to investigate the problem and they found significant damage to the starboard shaft and propeller.
The shaft is a combination of steel poles joined together with a shaft coupling, one of which had failed.
According to the engineers, the carrier broke down due to “Elementary Misalignment” mistakes.
This put the ship out of service at least until the spring of 2023..
Interestingly, during the 2019 sea trials, issues with the propeller shaft had been discovered.
Similar issues were also found on the port side of Hms Prince of Wales, so the other shaft had to be fixed too.
The shafts on the Hms Queen Elizabeth sistership were also inspected just in case, but no issues were found.
It was this second major incident that gave Hms Prince of Wales the reputation of being a trouble-plagued ship.
Some sailors called her an “unlucky ship”, especially that her sistership, Hms Queen Elizabeth, did not have the same issues with the shafts.
The conservative Mp, Mark Francois, said the Uk cannot have a “carrier with a limp”.
Why Most Carriers Can Be Considered Unlucky
After four years since commissioning, Hms Princes of Wales had spent more time in repair shops than at sea.
Yeah, it’s a bummer, but let’s be realistic here.
This is an aircraft carrier.
A quick look at other navies around the world with less than a handful of aircraft carriers paints a similar picture.
Russia spent billions of dollars on its only aircraft carrier, Admiral Kuznetsov, which was plagued with issues and has been in repair for the past several years.
The French spent 13 years building the nuclear-powered Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, which had many technical issues.
Not only did its propeller fall off during sea trials, but its flight deck also had to be lengthened to safely operate the E-2c Hawkeye prior to the carrier’s commissioning.
The Chinese and Indians did not exactly have a smooth experience either when dealing with the ex-Soviet carriers Varyag and Baku.
For example, India’s Ins Vikramaditya, which was refurbished by the Russians, was delivered 5 years late and at double the cost.
Considering that Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers were an entirely new design, issues are expected.
Even Americans, who are leaders in aircraft carriers, had multiple issues with electromagnetic catapults, advanced arresting gear and weapons elevators in their newest class of aircraft carriers.
That’s just how it is – there’s no way around it.
Why Royal Navy Downsized From 3 to 2 Carriers & Why its a Bad Idea
But why did the Royal Navy need two aircraft carriers to begin with?
Prior to the Queen Elizabeth-class, the Royal Navy operated three light carriers for roughly 30 years — Hms Invincible, Hms Illustrious and Hms Ark Royal.
But why operate three and not two or four?
This has to do with the “Rule of Thirds” that naval fleets usually follow.
Let’s use the Us Navy as an example.
Americans have 11 aircraft carriers, but it doesn’t mean that they can all be active simultaneously.
At any given time, one third of the carrier fleet is deployed, another third is preparing for or coming off a deployment and the last third is undergoing maintenance.
This means that for the Us Navy, up to 4 carriers are usually available for operation, and in case of an emergency, that number can probably grow to 5 or 6..
It’s worth mentioning that the Rule of Thirds is just a rule of thumb.
For example, many navies rely on the Rule of fourths when planning the deployment schedule of ballistic missile submarines.
One submarine is deployed, one is coming off deployment, one is preparing for deployment and one submarine is in maintenance.
There’s also a rule of halves, which results from budgetary pressures on politicians to increase military operational capacity.
This is done by eliminating the preparation and comeback phases, just like the Brits did when they downsized from a 3-carrier fleet to a 2-carrier fleet.
This means that Hms Queen Elizabeth, Hms Prince of Wales and their crews would have to work harder and longer to at least have one operational carrier at any given time.
In fact, this is exactly what happened when Hms Prince of Wales broke down prior its trip to the Us and, as a result, Hms Queen Elizabeth had to sail to the Us instead.
While you can rely on a two-phase rotation for short periods of time, some military academics insist that it is counterproductive.
Prolonged deployments not only result in premature failure of equipment, but they also decrease the psychological well-being of the crew, and that can increase the turnover of personnel.
Some further argue that navies should go to 4 or even 5-phase rotations in order to increase their ability to conduct sustained military operations.
All that said, as part of the cost cutting measures, the Uk downsized from three aircraft carriers to two.
In theory, this means that while one carrier is in maintenance, the other is deployed or should be available for deployment.