Royal Navy flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth to return back to Portsmouth after three weeks at sea

The 65,000-tonne warship set sail from the city at the beginning of the month for her first ‘workout’ of the year.

Venturing to the western coast of Scotland for the first time to pick up supplies before her global deployment in the spring, the £3.2bn behemoth is now on her return journey home.

She is expected to arrive back in Portsmouth at about 5.30pm today.

The arrival coincides with the publication of the government’s defence command paper, which aims to give more detail for the armed forces on the conclusions of the integrated review of the UK's foreign and defence policies, announced last week.

First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin, the head of the Senior Service, said the plans unveiled in the integrated review would see a significant investment being made in the navy.

Highlighting plans to increase the navy’s tonnage by 50 per cent from 2015 to 2030, Admiral Radakin said this would allow the Senior Service to increase its presence in the Gulf and Indo-Pacific.

And he hinted a larger role for the navy in the Arctic and north Atlantic, where Russia is seen as a threat.

‘I think with this secretary of state, he's been very clear to all of us as chiefs, that we respond to the threats that are out there,’ Adm Radakin told Forces News.

‘For me, that is Russian activity in the North Atlantic greater than we've seen over the last 30 years and some of that reaches up into the high north.

‘And then we're seeing the world-changing with a northern sea route starting to open up over the next 20 years, which halves the time from Europe to Asia.

‘So for us as a navy, we've got to respond to that and we're doing that with our allies as part of Nato and looking to be able to operate further north and then also to be ready for when that northern sea route starts to open up.’

HMS Queen Elizabeth is expected to leave Portsmouth next month to join an exercise in Scotland before setting sail on her maiden operational mission in May.

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