£3bn new carrier springs a leak
BRITAIN’S new flagship aircraft carrier has sprung a leak, taking on water at a rate of nearly 44 gallons an hour, it emerged yesterday.
But at least repairing the Royal Navy’s £3.1billion warship HMS Queen Elizabeth will not cost the taxpayers any money, said Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
It is understood there is a problem with an inflatable rubber ring-style seal around a propeller shaft.
The Royal Navy said the leak was identified during sea trials.
Pressed on the repair bill, Mr Williamson said the money, potentially millions of pounds, would come “from the contractors who built her”. He added: “This isn’t going to cost the British taxpayer a penny.”
The vessel, which is 65,000 tons and 919ft (280m) long, has an estimated working life of half a century.
It is believed to have been leaking for some time but Mr Williamson said: “This is the reason why we have the sea trials, to make sure that everything is working absolutely perfectly.”
A spokeswoman for the ship’s builders, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA), said the leaky seal, letting in 200 litres of water per hour, was known about before HMS Queen Elizabeth was commissioned and accepted into the Royal Navy.
The problem should be rectified in the new year without any need to take the ship into a dry dock, she said.
“It is normal practice for a volume of work and defect resolution to continue following vessel acceptance,” The £3.1billion HMS Queen Elizabeth at her home base of Portsmouth and right, a maintenance boat is seen working at the stern of the leaky carrier she said. The carrier will sail again early next year. The spokeswoman said the ACA deal includes a six-month period in which adjustments and “snagging issues” can be rectified.
She said these costs would be covered by the ACA and the firms involved in her construction, including BAE Systems and Babcock and Thales.
More than 10,000 people worked on the ship, which was built in sections at yards around the UK which were transported to Rosyth, Fife, where she was assembled.
During her working life the vessel can be pressed into action for various tasks such as high intensity war fighting or providing humanitarian aid and disaster relief.
She will primarily serve as a floating military air base for F-35B stealth fighter jets.