TheAltWorld ‘Big Lizzie’ on Fire: Flagship UK Aircraft Carrier Hit by Blaze in Latest Malfunction
Critics slam the aircraft carrier as a costly project that rides roughshod over Britain’s defense budget, and could be vulnerable to enemy drone attacks and hypersonic missiles.
A minor fire broke out onboard HMS Queen Elizabeth on Saturday in a new embarrassment for the Royal Navy flagship worth a whopping £3.5 billion ($4.5 billion).
The incident occurred while the 65,000-ton aircraft carrier was docked at Glenmallan in Scotland awaiting repairs.
A Royal Navy spokesperson confirmed it was a “small, isolated” fire that was “quickly brought under control and extinguished,” with no injuries and ordnance involved in the blaze. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
This comes after the flagship – nicknamed Big Lizzie – withdrew from a major NATO drill earlier this month after a coupling on the vessel’s 33-ton starboard propeller malfunctioned. The vessel was replaced by sister ship HMS Prince of Wales, but its departure was also canceled at the last minute due to the same malfunction.
HMS Queen Elizabeth, which was officially commissioned into the Royal Navy on December 7, 2017, boasts sophisticated weaponry and communications systems, as well as five gyms, a chapel and a medical center.
Critics, however, remain downbeat about what they dub an expensive project unable to tackle drone and hypersonic missile strikes, in addition to technical defects.
Commenting on the current situation with HMS Queen Elizabeth, geopolitical analyst and former US Marine Brian Berletic told Sputnik that it is “just the latest incident in a long line of maintenance problems plaguing” both the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier and its sister ship.
“Both carriers were built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance comprised of several large and notoriously corrupt arms manufacturing corporations who do business through bribery and by maximizing profits at the expense of safety and quality,” Berletic said.
According to him, “The fact that there are only two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers in the world, and both have major propulsion issues, points to a systemic problem hardly unique among the collective West’s largest (and most expensive) weapons programs.”
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