We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Key Point: The Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales, its flagship and one of the UK’s largest and most advanced aircraft carriers, is scheduled for a significant deployment to the Indo-Pacific in 2025 as part of Carrier Strike Group 2025.

-The carrier, capable of operating F-35B stealth fighters and Merlin helicopters, symbolizes Britain’s renewed focus on the region.

-However, HMS Prince of Wales faces scrutiny following a 2022 breakdown and its sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth experiencing similar technical issues.

-The deployment aims to restore confidence in the UK’s carrier program amid questions about their reliability.

Aircraft Carrier: HMS Prince of Wales Pacific Bound in 2025

The last time a warship named HMS Prince of Wales deployed to the Indo-Pacific it didn’t end well. In December 1941, the Royal Navy sent the King George V-class battleship and battlecruiser HMS Repulse had just arrived in Singapore to reinforce the British colonial garrisons in the Far East and to deter Japan. However, both warships were deployed without sufficient air cover, and on December 10, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse became the first capital ships to be sunk at sea solely by enemy aircraft.

There is some irony that just a day before the milestone moment in Royal Navy history, the UK’s senior service announced that its current flagship – the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales – will be deployed to the Indo-Pacific next year.

“We’re ready to go,” HMS Prince of Wales commanding officer Captain Will Blackett said. “The ship works, the team knows what they’re going to do, and we’re on standby now waiting for instructions.”

Blackett added that the crew is “excited” to take part in the deployment to the other side of the world. Carrier Strike Group 2025 will see the carrier and her escorts head east of the Suez Canal – and it follows a similar deployment of HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2021, the first time a Royal Navy flotilla traveled to the region in decades.

Britain’s newest aircraft carrier, Prince of Wales.

The British People Love this Aircraft Carrier

HMS Prince of Wales succeeded her sister ship as the flagship of the Royal Navy earlier month, the UK Defence Journal reported. The carrier returned to Portsmouth on Tuesday after a recent visit to Liverpool. During the visit, the warship hosted more than 5,000 visitors who came out to see the carrier. It is also common for residents of Portsmouth to line up to watch the carrier’s arrival and departure from the Royal Navy facilities.

However, during the visit to the hometown of The Beatles, police seized a drone that breached a temporary flight restriction zone.

Drones have been increasingly spotted near Royal Air Force (RAF) bases in recent months, while a Chinese national – a member of the Chinese Communist Party – was charged this month for flying a drone over the U.S. Navy’s Nimitz-class carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) in June, while the nuclear-powered warship was in port in South Korea.

Will the Carrier be Ready?

Along with her sister ship, the 65,000-tonne HMS Prince of Wales is one of the largest and most expensive warships ever built in the UK. It is also the most capable aircraft carrier every operated by the Royal Navy – it is equipped with a 280-meter-long flight deck, which allows it to operate with 36 Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II fifth-generation stealth fighters and four Merlin helicopters.

F-35B HMS Prince of Wales. Image: Creative Commons.

Image: Creative Commons. Aircraft Carrier Prince of Wales with F-35 fighter. 

Yet, HMS Prince of Wales still needs to get there and back again; something the warship wasn’t able to do for a planned deployment to the United States in August 2022. Just one day after setting sail, the carrier broke down off the Isle of Wight and had to be towed to Rosyth, Fife, where the vessel underwent repairs to her propeller shaft coupling that took nine months.

HMS Queen Elizabeth, which took the place of her sister ship in 2022, was sidelined due to a similar mishap earlier this year, just prior to a high-profile NATO exercise. These issues have been an embarrassing setback for the Royal Navy, and critics of the expensive flattops have questioned whether they would be reliable in a crisis.

Carrier Strike Group 2025 is certainly meant to put any fears aside – provided HMS Prince of Wales can depart from the UK and make it back home safely. Sadly, the former warship named to honor the heir to the British throne only took part in an unplanned one-way trip!

Author Experience and Expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a Senior Editor focusing on defense issues for 19FortyFive. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,500 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on X: @PeterSuciu – and on Bluesky: @petersuciu.bsky.social.