Royal Navy: What time can I see HMS Prince of Wales leave Portsmouth for her major deployment?

HMS Prince of Wales will depart from HMNB Portsmouth on Saturday morning (10.30am). The 65,000 tonne vessel will leave the Prince’s Royal Jetty at 10.30am, and will sail past The Round Tower in Old Portsmouth shortly afterwards.

She will then proceed to the Outer Spit Buoy at 11.20am towards The Nab Tower with a Pilot and Tug Assist. Personnel will be completing their Autumn training programme, initially heading towards Cornwall and then onto Scotland to carry out Exercise Strike Warrior. Sailors, pilots, engineers, and the rest of the ship’s company, will be put through their paces so they’re prepared for their deployment to Japan and the Indo-Pacific region next year.

F-35B Lightning jets from joint Royal Navy/RAF 809 Naval Air Squadron and 617 Squadron will embark on the carrier. The exercises will involve a multinational naval task force of warships. Personnel from 809 NAS will deploy with a Queen Elizabeth-class carrier for the first time, after the unit was created at RAF Marham in Norfolk at the end of last year.

They will join the 617 ‘Dambusters’ and form a front-line stealth fighter formation during the exercises. Pilots will be operating the fifth generation F-35B Lightning jets. The exercise will allow for 809 NAS pilots to achieve carrier qualifications by operating during the day and at night. Engineers, technicians and armourers will learn how to support the fighters while dealing with challenging conditions at sea. Once Exercise Strike Warrior is completed, HMS Prince of Wales will continue her winter programme.