FLAGSHIP SAILS INTO HOME BASE

Cheers arrival of huge aircraft carrier

CRUISE CONTROL State-of-art ops room CREW Sailors stand to attention on ship’s deck COST £3billion. She was ordered in 2008, work began a year later and she finally took to the sea in June. But it will be 2020 before she is fully operational. SIZE At 65,000-tonnes and 919ft long, she is the biggest ever Royal Navy vessel. The flight deck is big enough for three football pitches. MOTTO Semper Eadem – Ever the Same. She is the second Navy ship to be named Queen Elizabeth, and has the pennant number RO8. WEAPONS Up to 40 F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter jets will be based on board. Each of the ship’s two aircraft lifts can move two fighter jets from the hangar to the flight deck in just 60 seconds.

She will also be equipped with Merlin Mk2 helicopters fitted with the Crowsnest radar system to hunt enemy submarines and provide airborne surveillance.

She has three Phalanx systems for anti-aircraft and antimissile, including a radar-guided 20mm cannon mounted on a swivelling base. She will also be armed with four 30mm-calibre guns, plus smaller guns to fire at close quarters. ENGINES She is fitted with TOP GUN F-35B Lightning II

two Rolls-Royce Marine gas turbine alternators and four 10 megawatt diesel engines, enabling her two, 33-tonne propellers to discharge 80 megawatts of power, enough to run 1,000 family cars. CREW 700, about 80 women and 620 men. That will rise to 1,600 when all her aircraft are embarked. EATING Five galleys including two main galleys, the bridge mess and an aircrew refreshment bar. Monthly shopping bill is £110,000. FACILITIES A chapel, a medical centre and 12-bed ward, currently staffed with three GPs, a nurse and medical assistants, as well as a dentist and dental nurse. Five gyms, two weights rooms, boxing gym and cardiovascular suite. Basketball and tug of war games are held in the hangar and on the flight deck. Down-time spaces have televisions and sofas.