Cammell Laird begin Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier work as shipbuilding returns to Birkenhead
Shipbuilding officially returned to Birkenhead on Monday after 17 years when the first steel was cut at Cammell Laird for the new aircraft super carrier Queen Elizabeth.
The renowned Birkenhead shipyard has a £44m order to build the carrier’s flight deck and hangars.
The government minister for International Security Strategy, Gerald Howarth MP, was at Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead to formally start the building of the first of the new Queen Elizabeth class super carriers.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is expected to enter service in late 2015 and her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, in 2018, funding permitting.
The carriers will be 65,600 gross tonnes, 932ft (284m) long and carry up to 50 aircraft. They will replace the Royal Navy’s current three Invincible class aircraft carriers.
The last ship to be completed at Cammell Laird was the nuclear submarine HMS Unicorn in 1993. The ACA contract for Queen Elizabeth, awarded in late 2009, is to build two modules, designated CB02 and CB04. These weigh 6,000 tonnes and are two and three decks high.
Once completed, the modules will be loaded onto barges for Rosyth Naval Shipyard, Firth of Forth, Scotland, where Queen Elizabeth’s hull is being built.
Cammell Laird has invested £1.3m in refurbishing moth-balled shipyard offices for use by its commercial department and project staff. The work for Queen Elizabeth will be done in the yard’s giant Construction Hall, one of the largest in Europe. The hall’s huge overhead cranes have had a £700,000 reconditioning.
John Syvret, Cammell Laird chief executive, said: “This is a very proud day for us. It was a fantastic achievement to be shortlisted for this job and to be chosen is better still. “This is a major milestone on the journey to have Cammell Laird’s facilities fully utilised. We hope this project will lead to bigger and better things. “Our objective is to be an internationally-recognised marine and engineering services provider.”
Cllr Jeff Green, Leader of Wirral Council also sent his congratulations to Cammell Laird by saying: “This is a wonderful day for all those involved with Cammell Laird shipyard and Wirral as a whole. The return of shipbuilding to the yard is a tribute to John Syvret and his staff for their commitment to make Cammell Laird an internationally recognised marine and engineering service provider once more.
If the Queen Elizabeth work proceeds to plan, Cammell Laird hopes to build similar modules for HMS Prince of Wales. The total cost of both carriers is currently estimated to be around £5.2bn.
At 56m from keel to masthead, they are taller than Niagara Falls and built from three times as much steel as Wembley Stadium.
