2 Days at Sea Cost Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Prince of Wales 328 Days in Dock. Failed Coupling on Her Starboard Propeller Shaft Was the Problem

Automatically curated summary from 19FortyFive.

In August 2022, the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales suffered a starboard propeller shaft coupling failure just two days into a planned Atlantic deployment. An official investigation attributed the failure to construction misalignment that went uncorrected despite pre-commissioning reviews. The incident resulted in £25 million in repairs and 328 days in dry dock at Rosyth, disrupting developmental F-35B and drone flight trials. Although sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth assumed some duties, the event highlighted procurement and oversight vulnerabilities before subsequent deployments proved the repairs successful.

Context and limitations

The public investigation did not fully disclose technical engineering details, alignment measurements, or specific incorrectly installed components, and financial liability between the Ministry of Defence and contractor partners was not formally established.