Queen to commission HMS Queen Elizabeth

The Queen is to formally commission HMS Queen Elizabeth into the Royal Navy fleet in Portsmouth.

In three weeks’ time, she will visit Portsmouth to come face-to-face with the £3 billion aircraft carrier named after her.

The carrier is currently making great progress through her sea trials and will return to her home port in Portsmouth in a few weeks’ time. Her Majesty the Queen will then visit the ship in Portsmouth on 7 December for the formal commissioning ceremony.

Her Majesty will be joined by a host of dignitaries from the Royal Family, Government and the military, before saying a few words as Lady Sponsor. The commissioning warrant will then be read and the White Ensign raised, symbolising the acceptance of HMS Queen Elizabeth into Her Majesty’s fleet.

It will be the first time Her Majesty the Queen has visited the UK’s new flagship since she formally named her in Rosyth, Scotland in July 2014.

Since then the ship has been completed, sailed into her home dock of Portsmouth for the first time and is now continuing her sea trials. Her identical sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, has also been formally named and is now structurally complete.

Back in August, 1,000 people gathered by the Hampshire port to wave off the 919ft (280m), 65,000-tonne vessel on its month-long deployment at sea.

The carrier spent a month at sea around the south-west of the United Kingdom testing out its radar, communications and other technical equipment.