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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Politics
Ben Mitchell

Royal Navy flagship sails to prepare ahead of deployment to Australia

Royal Navy Navy Australia Ben Mitchell Portsmouth Naval Base Portsmouth
HMS Prince of Wales sails from Portsmouth Naval Base for preparations before a planned deployment (Ben Mitchell/PA) - (PA Wire)

The Royal Navy flagship HMS Prince of Wales has sailed from its home base as it prepares for its deployment to the other side of the world.

Well-wishers waved off the 65,000 tonne aircraft carrier as it sailed from Portsmouth Naval Base, Hampshire.

Well-wishers wave off HMS Prince of Wales as it sails from Portsmouth Naval Base (Ben Mitchell/PA) (PA Wire)

A Royal Navy spokeswoman said: “The Royal Navy’s Flagship, HMS Prince of Wales, left Portsmouth today for pre-deployment training and collecting stores.

“This is part of the ongoing preparation for the carrier strike group (CSG) deployment taking place later this year.”

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) announced in December that the flagship will head the CSG to the Indo-Pacific during which it will become the first of the two Queen Elizabeth class carriers to visit Australia.

The £3 billion warship will also take part in Exercise Talisman Sabre, a multinational exercise hosted by Australia involving 19 nations.

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