[movlabk]

By Andrew Preston: 21:00 GMT, 2 June 2012

Today it looks like a ramshackle tower block – its nine storeys are covered with makeshift scaffolding
and white plastic sheeting that billows in the breeze. But this is a huge chunk of HMS Queen Elizabeth,
Britain’s new class of aircraft carrier and the largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy.

HMS Queen Elizabeth will be three times the size of HMS Illustrious, our sole remaining carrier currently
being used to transport helicopters and commandos, and will be second only to the giant American
nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carriers.



While debate has focused on rising costs (up to £7 billion for two carriers) and what aircraft should fly
from the ships, construction work has been quietly continuing at six shipyards around the country.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is being built in sections, which are then transported by sea to the Number 1 Dock
at Rosyth, just north of Edinburgh, to be welded together

It might not look sleek and seaworthy on the outside yet, but below decks and already recognisable inside
the ship are the Junior Rates’ dining hall and galley (with boilers and deep-fat fryers ready to be fitted)
and broad corridors lined with cabins, as well as machine rooms, water-treatment equipment, and space
for ammunition storage and the weapons handling bay.

What currently looks like a flat roof is actually part of the flight deck, which will eventually be 280 metres
long and 74 metres wide.

In the era of cyber warfare and stealth technology, the idea of a giant floating steel platform might seem
absurdly cumbersome and arcane. But aircraft carriers remain the ultimate symbol of naval power.



The plan remains, for now at least, for HMS Queen Elizabeth to be handed over to the Royal Navy in early
2017 and be fully operational by 2020, with sister ship HMS Prince Of Wales two years behind.

It’s just up to the Americans now to deliver the planes – otherwise there’ll be room for more than just
a few table tennis tables on HMS Queen Elizabeth’s flight deck.