HMS Prince of Wales (R09)

HMS Prince of Wales (R09)

HMS Prince of Wales will be the second of the Royal Navy's two Queen Elizabeth class Aircraft carriers and is scheduled to enter service in 2018.

The ship will be assembled at Rosyth Royal Dockyard using blocks built by participating shipyards. Once in service the ship will be officially affiliated with the city of Liverpool, in the United Kingdom. Construction began in May 2011 with the first steel being cut by Dr Liam Fox on 26 May.

The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will be the largest, most powerful surface ships Britain has ever built. Their design is unique amongst aircraft carriers of the world in the positioning of the ships' flight controls, separate (behind) the ships' main bridges.

Although it had been intended to convert the Prince of Wales to a CATOBAR configuration, the government announced in May 2012 that the Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) F-35B variant jet would be purchased instead. The carrier will now be completed with a "ski-jump", in the STOVL configuration.