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It is, without a doubt, an awe-inspiring sight as we see the mighty HMS Prince of Wales coming
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just past the round tower with thousands of people lining. What a sound
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Just thought I'd pause rather than trying to shout over the foghorn from HMS, Prince of Wales
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And you can see actually lining the deck. This is Procedure Alpha, it's known as, where hundreds of personnel from the ship go up onto the flight deck there
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And they are assuming a position right around the ship at the bow, at the stern
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both port and starboard sides of this huge aircraft carrier to wave, of course, to the families
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Hats off, waving to the families who have come from all over
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We were speaking a little earlier to a couple of families who have come all the way down from Hull, others from Liverpool
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Right across the country, there are people who have families on this ship heading out on what will be an eight-month deployment
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a very significant deployment to the other side of the world, stopping off in dozens of locations on the way
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And, of course, we're told that there is a port visit to Australia
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which will be the first time that a British aircraft carrier of the new Queen Elizabeth class has docked at Portsmouth itself As we get this side on shot you can just see what a huge aircraft carrier it is
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285 metres long, 75 metres in width. And the official tonnage that was given for this aircraft carrier is 65,000 tonnes
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but there have been some sort of recalibrations of that and estimates now put it up to 75,000, maybe 80,000 tonnes
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And as for the flight deck, it is enormous. There are four helicopters, one, two, three, four, five helicopters
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that I can see on board at the moment. Lynx aircraft at the front and Merlin helicopters
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towards the stern of this aircraft carrier. That is only just a small proportion of the air group that will assemble on this aircraft carrier
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because it's going to head now to the seas of Cornwall, where it will catch up with the rest of the carrier strike group
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and then embark more helicopters before the F-35 combat jets, These fifth generation combat jets will go on board Prince of Wales
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And we're told that potentially up to 24 of these jets, at least in the initial phase of this deployment, will be on this carrier
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And if that is true or anywhere near 24, that will be the biggest deployment since the Falklands War way back in 1982 of combat aircraft in a marine environment for the UK
