HMS Prince of Wales (R09)

History of the Prince of Wales (R09)

HMS Prince of Wales (R09) has been ordered as the second Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier to complement the Royal Navy (main ship HMS Queen Elizabeth) from 2020. With the official defence contract dated 3 July 2008, Prince of Wales was officially ordered to build on 20 May 2008 and laid on 26 May 2011.

Depending on project changes or budget cuts, HMS Prince of Wales will join her sister ship sometime in 2018 and will have HMNB Portsmouth as her home port with her crew on "I Dien" ("I Serve") Fight under the motto. Construction of the various component blocks required will be led by BAe Systems Surface Ships, Babcock Marine, A&P Group and Cammell Laird, and will ultimately involve around seven shipyards in total.

For budgetary reasons, the HMS Queen Elizabeth may remain the only active ship in the class, while the HMS Prince of Wales may be in an indefinite "ready state", subject to request if necessary.

While the U.S. Navy continues to deploy aircraft carriers on a large scale around the world, shrinking military budgets after World War II have resulted in limited deployment of such ships to other competing naviesincluding the United Kingdom and the U.S. Navy, the Soviet Union.

As a result, the Royal Navy relies on only a handful of active front-line aircraft carriers at any one time. Their expertise in deploying carrier operations led to an impressive performance during the Falklands War with Argentina and helped to underpin the need for carriers in future Royal Navy inventory planning and doctrine. All in all, the new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers will subtly expand the range and capabilities of the Royal Navy, especially when paired with the latest attack aircraft and helicopters such as the Lockheed F-35 Lightning II and AgustaWestland Lynx Wildcat .

In May 1997, the new British government conducted a "Strategic Defence Review" assessment of the military stockpile of major weapons. The study was designed to assess the value of aircraft carriers to future Royal Navy operations.

The resulting agreement also showed that the Cold War-era Invincible-class carriers did not fit the modern and more recent battlefield concerns about naval warfare, requiring competing companies to conduct several design studies, reach consensus, and then agree in 1999, leading to the expected lucrative Defense contracts produce official draft and contest winners.

The HMS Prince of Wales was originally intended to be of conventional design and layout, with its island-style superstructure offset to the right of the expansive flight deck. It should follow a more traditional sloping deck beam layout rather than a straightforward approach. However, in May 2012, British authorities announced that their designs would follow a straight-line layout, and that the government would purchase the STOVL variant of the Lockheed F-35B Lightning II multirole fighter. Therefore, the launch is assisted by a ski ramp in the bow. A pair of hangar lifts will provide flight deck service for its aircraft.

One of the lifts is located between the main bridge and the superstructure of the flying bridge island, and the other is located aft of the flying bridge superstructure along the starboard stern area of ??the ship.

The unique design and silhouette of the Prince of Wales (and the entire Queen Elizabeth-class carrier) will be the superstructure design of the twin islands. The front structure will contain the main bridge facilities, while the rear structure will house the flight control section responsible for managing the wings.

Both superstructures are aligned to the starboard side of the ship, allowing the central and port side areas to freely launch and retrieve various types of aircraft.

HMS Prince of Wales will accommodate approximately 600 Royal Navy personnel, including sailors, officers and crew. If necessary, the total wartime capacity can be more than doubled (up to 1,450 people). When complete, the Prince of Wales is expected to be significantly larger than the Invincible-class carrier it replaces, making it more competitive with the U.S.

Navy's nuclear-powered Nimitz-class carriers. This will make HMS Prince of Wales and her sister HMS Queen Elizabeth the largest and most technologically advanced warships the British Navy has ever built. Both are currently under construction (as of November 2011).

Propulsion on the Prince of Wales will be conventional, unlike its American counterpart, which relies heavily on nuclear power. Prince of Wales will instead rely on two Rolls-Royce Ocean Trent MT30 series gas turbine generator sets for 48,000 hp electric propulsion, linked to four Wartsila diesel generator sets (2 x 12,000 hp and 2 x 15,000 hp) . The vessel's total displacement is expected to be 72,300 short tons, with a barrel length of 932 feet, a beam of 240 feet and a beam of 36 feet.

Under ideal conditions, the maximum speed is 25 knots.

The HMS Prince of Wales Air Wing will consist of approximately 40 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, including the upcoming Lockheed F-35 Lightning II, for multi-role attack and combat missions. The Rotary Win team is expected to include the UK's AgustaWestland Lynx Wildcat medium helicopters and AgustaWestland Merlin heavy duty helicopters.

In addition, Boeing Chinook tandem rotor transport helicopters and Apache attack helicopters will be supported as needed. The Royal Navy had initially planned to receive the STOVL variant of the F-35 Lightning II ("F-35B"), but this has reportedly given way to procuring the more traditional F-35C carrier-based aircraft capable of catapult launch and tow recovery will.

All supported aircraft are serviced and managed through an integrated below-deck hangar and two elevator lift systems. Fixed-wing aircraft are launched via catapults located in designated areas of the flight deck, and recovery is via conventional streamers across the rear of the deck.

The airline will have enough space on the flight deck to store several "ready-to-fly" aircraft on the starboard side for a quick response.

The Prince of Wales is defended by a network of weapon systems designed to provide long-range and point defense protection for vital machinery. These include the Phalanx close-in weapon system as well as a 30mm cannon to cover both air and ground threats. Interestingly, at the time of writing, the missile defense system is not officially listed. In addition, escort surface ships and submarines operating within the carrier fleet provide defense. HMS Prince of Wales will rely on the Thales S1850M long-range radar system to track, identify and respond to incoming threats.

Further processing is done with Ultra Electronics' 2500 Series Electro-Optical Systems (EOS) and Glide Path Camera Suite.

Specification

Basic

Roles

Dimensions

Weight

Performance

Performance

Armor

Wing