The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has come home for Christmas after a maiden voyage and a debacle involving an F-35 jet.
The £3 billion vessel arrived at Portsmouth naval base yesterday having set off in May with seven warships and a submarine for a voyage to the Far East. The Type 45 destroyers HMS Defender and HMS Diamond returned to the port earlier in the day, with the Type 23 frigate HMS Richmond returning to Plymouth.
Last month, an F-35B Lightning II jet crashed into the Mediterranean after tumbling off the edge of the carrier’s flight deck.
Vessels from Britain, Italy and America embarked on a seven-day operation to recover the £120 million jet from the sea floor.
A sailor who was a member of the crew on the aircraft carrier was arrested for leaking video of the incident.
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The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that the Queen Elizabeth had returned after her global seven-month maiden operational deployment leading Carrier Strike Group 21.
The group comprised 3,700 personnel from nine ships, a submarine, five air squadrons and a company of Royal Marines. During more than seven months away, the service personnel consumed 25.5 tonnes of sausages, 2.1 million eggs, 190,000 potatoes, 1.2 million rashers of bacon and 355,200 pints of milk. Forty tonnes of post was delivered to them.
Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, said: “The personnel and their families have made considerable sacrifices to make this deployment the success it has been.”
They were able to travel home after taking a PCR test.
The MoD said that 25 of those deployed met babies born in the past seven months for the first time yesterday.
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Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, said: “I wish our returning sailors, aviators, soldiers and marines a very happy reunion with their families this Christmas.”
