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A technical issue has been detected on a UK navy flagship while docked in Norway after working with Nato and the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), the government has said.
Earlier this month, HMS Prince of Wales – one of Britain’s two flagship aircraft carriers built for £6.4bn – set sail for Nordic waters from Loch Long, in Argyll and Bute, to provide security in the Atlantic and High North regions.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said a “minor technical issue” was identified during its latest stop in Stavanger, a city in south-west Norway.
“HMS Prince of Wales is currently conducting a port visit to Stavanger as part of the Carrier Strike Group’s deployment across the North Atlantic and Arctic, we expect her to set sail in the coming days,” an MoD spokesperson said.
The ship, which is usually based in Portsmouth, was joined by Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan and tanker RFA (Royal Fleet Auxiliary) Tidespring on its way to Nordic waters. It can carry up to 72 aircraft and accommodate up to 1,600 people. It worked with Nato and the 10-nation coalition JEF throughout the deployment.
The ship had been readied by Royal Navy workers in March, meaning it could be deployed more quickly if a decision was made to mobilise it to the Middle East. An MoD spokesperson said at the time that HMS Prince of Wales could also undertake other planned missions.
Britain’s other flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, was forced to pull out of a Nato exercise off the Norwegian coast in 2024 after pre-sailing checks uncovered a coupling problem on its starboard propeller shaft. Maintaining and repairing the ships has already cost more than £1bn.
HMS Prince of Wales, which took its place in that exercise, has also previously had mechanical issues. It broke down in August 2022 after setting sail for the US because a propeller shaft broke after being misaligned when installed. The vessel was flooded twice in its first year of service, having been commissioned in 2019.
In March, the UK’s military capacity came under scrutiny after the warship HMS Dragon was belatedly deployed to Cyprus, home to two UK military bases, in a defensive move following the joint US and Israel’s attacks on Iran.
A persistent complaint among military figures is that government ministers, from both Labour and the Conservatives, have been reluctant to acknowledge a “rhetoric to reality gap” where the UK positions itself as a global power when in reality its global military capabilities are stretched very thin.
At the end of the cold war, the UK had 51 destroyers and frigates after a period during which Britain spent 3.2% of its GDP on defence. The UK now spends 2.4% of GDP on defence, a figure that Labour has said it will lift to 2.5% by April 2027.
