Navy

Two Halves Of Gigantic Aircraft Carrier Skidded Into Place

The video above shows the 26,500 tonnes of HMS Prince of Wales skidded back with millimetre precision to the 11,200 tonne section of the rear of the carrier in Rosyth, Scotland.

The aircraft carrier and sister ship to HMS Queen Elizabeth, is being pieced together at Rosyth, Scotland in a major British engineering project involving hundreds of companies across the UK.s across the UK.

The significant feat of engineering marked significant milestone for the ship as two halves of the ship were joined together in a marathon 10 hour operation using a specialised hydraulic system.

It took 10 hours to join the two halves of HMS Prince of Wales together.

Tom Niven, build and assembly manager for the ACA, said: "While we've completed a few of these skidding operations on the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers, this is the final operation of its type on the programme and the heaviest section anyone in the UK has had to move.

"It's always a particularly delicate and precise procedure, demonstrating the high-level of engineering skills we have across the alliance."

The operation is believed to be a UK record in terms of the weight of the ship that was skidded.

Last month, the Royal Navy installed a ground-breaking radar system on the HMS Queen Elizabeth that is capable of detecting objects as small as a tennis ball travelling at triple the speed of sound over 25km away.