Royal Navy: HMS Queen Elizabeth remains in Scotland after propeller shaft fault similar to HMS Prince of Wales

HMS Queen Elizabeth left Portsmouth on March 5 as she headed for the Rosyth drydock, Fife, to carry out repairs. The 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier sailed under the Forth Bridge weeks later, after stopping off at Glen Mallan to unload munitions.

Her crew were originally preparing to take part in Exercise Steadfast Defender - Nato’s largest operation since The Cold War. A faulty coupling, on the starboard propeller shaft, threw a spanner in the works to those plans, stopping her from going to the North Sea and working alongside allied warships and other units, as well as Exercise Joint Warrior.

It was identified during pre-sailing checks. Her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, took her place. The malfunction brought ire from some politicians and former top brass at the time. Lord Alan West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord, made claims in parliament on February 12 after HMS Queen Elizabeth’s fault and HMS Prince of Wales’ deployment delay.

He said: “I am very concerned about the initial problem the Prince of Wales had almost two years ago with the shaft misalignment. Can the minister say how are we going to get some payment from the people who built the ship? To have accepted it with a shaft that was misaligned was bad and it was badly built and somehow we should be able to get money back from the builders rather than the UK public paying for that damage.”

Defence minister the Earl of Minto responded: “My understanding is that is the case. Clearly these matters are looked at very seriously throughout these exercises and obviously one hopes that the reliability of these extremely complicated pieces of equipment improves.”

A Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokesman previously said the HMS Queen Elizabeth fault was “separate and not linked” to the defect on its sister ship. He added: “The issue identified is with the ship’s shaft couplings.

“The ship’s propeller shafts are too big to be made from a single piece of metal, so each shaft is made from three sections, which are connected using shaft couplings, which bind the shaft sections together.” The aircraft carrier has been in Scotland since March, with an investigation being carried out into the fault after it was described as being caused by “wear and tear”. The Royal Navy declined to comment further about the repairs and when the flagship will be sailing again.