New carrier’s operations room ready for use
The operations room of the Royal Navy’s second aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is ready for use two months earlier than planned, the navy announced on 28 August.
The operations room is where the crew of Prince of Wales will conduct surveillance and direct missions, and track the movements of the carrier’s F-35B Lightning jets and Merlin helicopters.
Engineers and technicians from the aircraft carrier alliance worked together with Royal Navy experts to ensure that all the equipment and cabling is in place and the computer systems are able to process the masses of sensor, radar and external source data coming into the ship.
It is the latest part of the ship to be finished and handed over; watches are already being run in the ship control centre, which oversees the marine engineering aspects of the 65,000t carrier.
In all, more than 3,000 compartments have to be signed off before the carrier leaves Rosyth to undergo sea trials next year in the hands of a combined Royal Navy-civilian crew.
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