The largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy could be heading for the Highlands for her final tests within weeks.
Both longer than the Houses of Parliament and taller than the Niagara Falls, the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier is currently being completed at the Rosyth shipyard.
The £3billion vessel is poised to set sail for her maiden sea trials between June 21 and 24, the UK Defence Journal has reported, although specific dates are still to be confirmed by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance.
She is scheduled to undergo several weeks of tests, and it previously emerged that the carrier could dock at Invergordon in the Cromarty Firth for one week in the middle of the trials.
Conflicting reports now suggest that HMS Queen Elizabeth will either call at Invergordon or for a longer period in Portsmouth, depending on various factors.
However, it is anticipated she will carry out tests off the coast of the Highlands during the exercises.
The deep and sheltered waters of the Cromarty Firth are today more closely associated with oil and gas industry platforms, and cruise liners, but were routinely used by the Royal Navy during the world wars.
The aircraft carrier sea trials had originally been expected to get under way in the spring, before defence ministers indicated that they would be held in the summer.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is being constructed at Rosyth alongside sister vessel, the Prince of Wales.
The creation of the carriers has supported 8,000 jobs around the country, including shipyards in Glasgow, Portsmouth, Birkenhead, Tyne and Devon, with another 3,000 people working in Rosyth, including those in supply chain companies.
The Aircraft Carriers Alliance – made up of the Ministry of Defence and contractors’ Babcock, BAE Systems and Thales UK – said this week: “HMS Queen Elizabeth is in advanced stages of her test and commissioning phase and will undertake her maiden sea trials programme in the summer.”
The UK Defence Journal reported this week that Merlin helicopters from the 820 Naval Air Squadron recently completed an exercise in Scotland to prepare for operating from HMS Queen Elizabeth.
Merlin helicopters are due to be the first aircraft to fly from the carrier later this year, thereafter followed by Apache, Wildcat and Chinook helicopters next year, as well as F-35 fighter jets.
