Picture: HMS Queen Elizabeth takes shape

HMS QUEEN Elizabeth, the first of the Royal Navy’s new fleet of aircraft carriers is taking shape in the Babcock Marine Dockyard at Rosyth, with the flightdeck and superstructure clearly visible from this aerial shot.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth, as viewed from above. Picture:Aerial Photography Solutions

The first vessels of the new fleet, which at 284m long will contain the largest ships ever constructed for the Royal Navy, are expected to come into service in 2017 at the earliest, and are being assembled at BAE shipyards around the UK.

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Rosyth however, is the only remaining British yard capable of constructing vessels of this size.

The £3.8bn order for two new aircraft carriers was announced in July 2007 by the then Defence Secretary Des Browne, with successor John Hutton confirming that the ships would enter service later than planned.

Construction of the HMS Queen Elizabeth began in 2009, with an 11,000-tonne section of the ship beginning a lengthy journey around the south coast of England, avoiding bad weather, from the Govan shipbuilding hall to the dockyard at Rosyth in November of last year.