HMS Prince of Wales: £3.2bn Royal Navy warship to be stripped for parts while repairs continue

HMS Prince of Wales will see some of her equipment transferred to her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth. Problems with the 65,000-tonne warship started in the summer of 2022 – breaking down off the coast of the Isle of Wight in August on her way out of Portsmouth to join the US Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy and United States Marine Corps for training exercises in America.

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The Royal Navy said the starboard propeller had malfunctioned as the coupling which held it in place broke off. Vice Admiral Paul Marshall confirmed at a defence select committee in February that the propeller shafts on the portside were also misaligned.

He added that the plan was for HMS Prince of Wales to return to operations this spring, though no exact return date has been issued. Repairs to the Portsmouth-based carrier are set to exceed £20m. The Nato flagship is still in her birthplace of Rosyth drydock for repairs.

A full investigation is under way to figure out the cause of the faults. The Mail on Sunday reports that a fault with the propeller shafts was discovered by shipbuilders in 2019. While in dock, some parts will be stripped off HMS Prince of Wales and used to make repairs to her sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth.

According to The National, this would include the scavenging of the ship’s oil and fuel filters, which separates seawater from diesel in the fuel tanks, and one of the chains from its flight desk lifts, which carry fighter jets from interior hangers up to the flight deck.

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Using parts from one ship and to carry out repairs to another is colloquially known as ‘cannibalisation’. A Royal Navy spokeswoman said the practice avoids delays to repairs.

She said: ‘It is common practice in modern navies for equipment to be transferred amongst ships of the same class, because it allows ships to remain operationally available and avoids issues such as production delays for bespoke equipment. The Royal Navy is meeting all of its operational commitments.’