Archives: Projects

The team at HMS are proud to have supported both HMS Queen Elizabeth and the team at BAE during her recent visit to her home base of HMNB Portsmouth. Hythe Marine Services conducted mechanical works, fabrication works, electrical and hydraulic engineering as well as consultancy support to ensure that HMS Queen Elizabeth is ship shape.

Hythe was able to showcase its ability to integrate with the world leading BAE team and the Royal Navy on a vast array of different projects and packages during this period with up to 100 HMS staff involved on any given day.

The Royal Navy aircraft carrier left Portsmouth on Monday and is making a trip to the dry-dock in Rosyth in Scotland for maintenance work. She will also be reunited with her sister ship HMS Prince of Wales to begin a six-week maintenance period.

During the dry-dock period, the carrier will undergo a routine, planned hull survey and maintenance of its underwater systems, according to the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Once completed, Queen Elizabeth will return to HMNB Portsmouth and continue to conduct a period of helicopter trials in UK waters before heading to the east coast of the US later this year for more fixed-wing flight trials involving Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II aircraft.

Britain’s flagship of the future has demonstrated that it can now strike out anywhere across the globe after refuelling at sea for the first time.

After a dry run, HMS Queen Elizabeth successfully took on fuel, receiving ‘amber gold’ from RFA Tidespring, the tanker purpose-built to support the new aircraft carrier on her global operations.

For the maiden transfer, just 220 ‘cubes’ of F76 marine fuel was sent across on both her port (left) and starboard (right) sides. The replenishment was more about testing the principle rather than the carrier’s tanks running low.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is due to return to Portsmouth shortly for a spot of maintenance, leave for her crew and preparations for her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in the early autumn, when she conducts flying trials with F-35B Lightning stealth fighter/bombers for the first time.

The team at Hythe Marine Services is looking forward to welcoming the carrier back to its home port at HMNB Portsmouth and to support her crew and conduct preparations for her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in the early autumn when she conducts flying trials with F-35B Lightning stealth fighter/bombers for the first time.

Hythe Marine Services is the Marine industry’s choice for quality engineering services due to our multi-skilled, cross-platform approach ensuring that each member of the team across the business has a wide skill-set and expert industry knowledge. We provide engineering teams to attend vessels throughout the UK and internationally for a variety of marine projects, planned or reactive ship repair and maintenance such as the preparing the Royal Navy’s new Aircraft Carrier for her maiden voyage.