Britain could unleash the Royal Navy’s flagship warship to maintain a NATO presence in the Red Sea as Iran-backed Houthi rebels continue to target shipping vessels travelling through the area.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth could be deployed to the area in the coming days as a replacement for its US counterpart, the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, which is soon due to return home.
The ship – one of two within the Queen Elizabeth class alongside the HMS Prince of Wales – is the most formidable to ever enter active service in the UK and, at £4billion alone, it is also the most expensive.
Not a single pound of that money has gone to waste, having been used to make the vessel a walking armoury bristling with an array of firepower.
Express.co.uk has explored the Queen Elizabeth’s mammoth specifications as the Government prepares to “plug a gap in US deployments” in the Middle East.
The Queen Elizabeth class ships are the Navy’s largest and most powerful and are listed as an “awe-inspiring warship”.
The vessels are notable behemoths weighing 65,000 tonnes and standing 56 metres (184 feet) above the water’s surface.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth boasts a massive flight deck four acres (280 metres) long and 70 metres (230 ft) wide, space needed for the roughly 40 aircraft it is capable of carrying.
The Navy boasts that each aircraft lift installed aboard can move F35 jets – some of the most lethal units of their kind in the world – to the deck in just 60 seconds.
And, on top of the jets, the vessels can hold up to seven Crowsnest helicopters used for surveillance and submarine hunting.
As if that wasn’t enough, the vessel is more than capable of fighting off threats on the seas alone, thanks to its impressive array of guns.
Installed aboard are three highly formidable Phalanx close-in weapon system (CIWS) turrets.
Each turret consists of a radar-guided 20mm Vulcan cannon with 360-degree tracking capabilities thanks to a swivelling base.
They boast a dual fire rate that can fire 3,000 or 4,500 shots per minute which can reach up to a mile away.
Aside from those state-of-the-art armaments, the ships are also equipped with high-grade communications systems, five gyms, a chapel, and a dedicated medical centre.
