Prince Charles Attends Commissioning Of HMS Prince Of Wales

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have attended the commissioning ceremony for HMS Prince of Wales.

HMS Prince of Wales is the second Queen Elizabeth-class vessel following sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth and cost £3.1 billion.

The royal couple visited the ship's central aircraft hangar where the Chaplain of the Fleet led the ceremony.

The Duchess, who is the ship's lady sponsor, inspected the front rank of the Royal Guard, made up of the Ship's Company, while Prince Charles inspected the rear rank.

Her Royal Highness also addressed the 3,000 guests gathered for the ceremony.

It culminated with the cutting of the Commissioning Cake and the signing of the visitors' book.

Speaking to Forces News after the ceremony, Lieutenant Zoe Jones, Officer of the watch 2, said: “Really proud, really enjoyable - ultimately, I did really enjoy being on parade and seeing Camilla and Charles come to visit."

The aircraft carrier's commissioning means the Royal Navy now has two aircraft carriers.

Commodore Mike Utley, Commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, said: “It is a huge day for the Royal Navy, everyone in this uniform is smiling as we see our second Queen Elizabeth-class carrier come into service.

“We work very closely with the Royal Air Force, across defence and commonwealth nations to put this together, so it’s much bigger than just for the naval service.”

They were side-by-side for the first time last week when HMS Queen Elizabeth returned home to Portsmouth.

In November, HMS Prince of Wales arrived into her home base of Portsmouth following her first round of sea trials. 

Thirty-million-pounds has been spent on upgrading the base's Victory Jetty so it can host the two 65,000 tonne ships. 

During their expected 50-years' service, the two 280m long aircraft carriers could be deployed for a range of roles from providing humanitarian aid or disaster relief to high-intensity warfare.

(Cover Image: Royal Navy).