Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier

HMS Prince of Wales (foreground) and HMS Queen Elizabeth (background) on 19 May 2021
Class overview
Name	Queen Elizabeth class
Builders	Aircraft Carrier Alliance
Operators	Royal Navy
Preceded by	Invincible class
Cost	£7.6 billion (2019)[1] for two units
Built	2009–2017
In commission	2017–present[2]
Planned	2
Completed	2
Active	2
General characteristics
Type	Aircraft carrier
Displacement	65,000 tonnes (64,000 long tons; 72,000 short tons)[3]
Length	284 m (932 ft)[5]
Beam	39 m (128 ft) waterline 73 m (240 ft) overall[7][8]
Draught	11 m (36 ft)
Decks	16,000 m2 (170,000 sq ft) 9 decks beneath flightdeck with hangar covering the centrepiece of two decks (without islands)
Installed power	2 × Rolls-Royce Marine Trent MT30 36 MW (48,000 hp) gas turbine engine 2 × Wärtsilä 16V38 and 2 x 12V38 marine diesel engines 40 MW (54,000 hp) Total: 118.4 MW (158,800 hp)
Propulsion	Integrated electric propulsion 4 × GE Power Conversion 20 MW (27,000 hp) Advanced Induction Motors and VDM25000 drives 2 × shafts; fixed pitch propellers
Speed	In excess of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph), tested to 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph)[14]
Range	10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km; 12,000 mi)
Troops	250[9] to 900[10]
Complement	679 crew, not including air element; total berths for up to 1,600
Sensors and processing systems	S1850M long-range radar Type 997 Artisan 3D medium range radar Ultra Electronics Series 2500 Electro Optical System (EOS) Glide path camera (GPC)
Armament	3 × Phalanx CIWS[11] 4 × 30-mm DS30M Mk2 guns (for but not with)[12] 6 × Miniguns (retired in 2023 and replaced by Browning .50 caliber heavy machine guns)[13]
Aircraft carried	1 × carrier air wing of 40 aircraft; typically, F-35B Lightning (maximum of 36)[6] Chinook Apache Merlin HM2, HC4 and Crowsnest AEW Wildcat AH1 and HMA2
Aviation facilities	Large flight deck with 12º ski jump Hangar deck - 155 m x 34 m x 7 m Two aircraft lifts - 27 m x 15 m - 54,500 kg max load[4]

The Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy consists of two vessels. The lead ship of her class, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was named on 4 July 2014^[15] in honour of Elizabeth I^[16] and was commissioned on 7 December 2017.^[2] Her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, was launched on 21 December 2017, and was commissioned on 10 December 2019.^[17] They form the central components of the UK Carrier Strike Group.^[18]

The contract for the vessels was announced in July 2007, ending several years of delay over cost issues and British naval shipbuilding restructuring. The contracts were signed one year later on 3 July 2008, with the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership formed with Babcock International, Thales Group, A&P Group, the UK Ministry of Defence and BAE Systems. In 2014 the UK Government announced that the second carrier would be brought into service, ending years of uncertainty surrounding its future. This was confirmed by the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, with at least one carrier being available at any time.^[19][20]

The vessels have displacement of approximately 65,000 tonnes (64,000 long tons; 72,000 short tons), are 284 metres (932 ft) long and are the largest warships ever constructed for the Royal Navy.^[3] The Carrier Air Wing (CVW) will vary depending on the type and location of deployment, but will consist of a maximum of 24 F-35Bs under normal circumstances (or 36 in extreme cases) and Merlin helicopters in both utility and Airborne Early Warning roles.^[6] The projected cost of the programme is £6.2 billion.^[21]

The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review announced the intention to purchase the Lockheed Martin F-35C "carrier variant" and to build Prince of Wales in a Catapult Assisted Take-Off Barrier Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) configuration. However, in 2012, after projected costs of the CATOBAR system rose to around twice the original estimate, the government announced that it would revert to the original design deploying F-35Bs from Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) configured carriers.