Fresh embarrassment for Navy as hearth breaks out on £3bn flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth | EUROtoday

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A fireplace broke out on the Royal Navy’s £3bn flagship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, whereas it was within the dock awaiting repairs.

The hearth began on board the Royal Navy’s largest and strongest vessel, stated to be docked at Glenmalan in Scotland, on Saturday morning.

A Royal Navy spokesperson stated the “minor, isolated fire” was rapidly introduced beneath management and extinguished.

It is known there have been no reported accidents and no ordnance was concerned within the incident. Officials are working to ascertain how the hearth began.

It is the second time in as many weeks that HMS Queen Elizabeth has been hit with an issue. The flagship vessel pulled out of a Nato train earlier this month after a difficulty was found with its coupling – an element between the propeller shaft and gearbox.

It was changed with its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, which was to participate within the largest Nato maritime train in almost half a century.

HMS Prince of Wales itself encountered issues when it broke down off the Isle of Wight 18 months beforehand after setting sail for the US. It additionally suffered a malfunction with a coupling on its starboard propeller.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is now en path to Rosyth in Scotland so any obligatory repairs might be carried out on her starboard propeller shaft coupling.

It comes after the federal government confronted questions over the effectiveness of Britain’s nuclear deterrent after a take a look at launch of the UK’s Trident nuclear missile failed, crashing again into the ocean near the submarine that fired it.

The unarmed Trident II missile was launched from the nuclear-powered HMS Vanguard as a part of closing assessments following a £500m overhaulearlier than the vessel returns to patrol service.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt didn’t announce any extra funding for the Ministry of Defence in his spring Budget on Wednesday regardless of rising threats all over the world and warfare in Europe.

Rishi Sunak is beneath stress to spice up defence spending after two serving ministers publicly referred to as for a “much greater pace” of funding.

The name from Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan and safety minister Tom Tugendhat got here after the Budget was criticised for failing to spice up defence spending.

The two senior Tories stated the UK must “lead the way” by rising defence and safety spending to at the least 2.5 per cent of gross home product (GDP), a measure of the scale of the financial system.

While the government has an aspiration to succeed in 2.5 per cent, past the Nato-wide goal of two per cent, the ministers stated the worldwide threat posed by nations together with Russia and China meant there was no time for delay.

“The sad truth is that the world is no longer benign,” they stated.