New Jetty for Royal Navy’s Carriers Completed at Portsmouth

The Royal Navy officially named the jetty that will house its giant new aircraft carriers in Portsmouth, officially naming the vast berth as The Princess Royal Jetty.

It will be home to the Royal Navy’s two new 65,000-tonne Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. Formerly known as Middle Slip Jetty, the berth has been upgraded and strengthened to support the carriers as part of a raft of infrastructure upgrades taking place ahead of the arrival of the first ship – HMS Queen Elizabeth – later this year.

Work continues at a pace to get our naval base ready for the arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth later this year and the excitement builds as we now enter the final stages of work, testing and training ahead of her arrival.

The jetty, parts of which date back over 90 years, has been refurbished in addition to the dredging of the approach channel, inner harbor area and berth in order to make them deep and wide enough for the new ships, moving three million cubic meters of clay, sand and gravel from an area the size of 200 football pitches.

“The work on The Princess Royal Jetty is a fantastic example of how we are investing in the future of the Royal Navy and is the culmination of £100m of infrastructure upgrades in Portsmouth in preparation for our two new aircraft carriers,” said Minister for Defence Procurement, Harriett Baldwin. “The Queen Elizabeth class carriers, together with our F-35 jets will transform our ability to project power around the world.”

Bespoke navigational lights, a high-voltage electrical supply and specialist carrier-specific gangways, known as ‘brows’, are also being provided as part of the £100m program of works. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) has worked with VolkerStevin and BAE Systems to deliver the package of infrastructure needed for the carriers.

Recently, the giant American supply ship USNS Robert E Peary tested the strength of the new jetty by coming alongside in Portsmouth. The US ship, which despite its mammoth size is still 200ft shorter than the Queen Elizabeth carriers, was the first vessel to use the jetty since its completion.

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