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A fire broke out on the Royal Navy’s £3bn flagship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, whereas it was within the dock awaiting repairs.
The fire 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 determine how the fire 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 – a component 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 essential repairs will 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 check 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 remaining assessments following a £500m overhaul, earlier 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 world wide and conflict in Europe.
Rishi Sunak is beneath strain 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 very least 2.5 per cent of gross home product (GDP), a measure of the dimensions of the economic system.
While the government has an aspiration to achieve 2.5 per cent, past the Nato-wide goal of two per cent, the ministers stated the worldwide danger 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.
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