Construction of HMS Prince of Wales, the second of two new aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, has moved forward with the docking of two of the ship’s largest hull sections.

The docking at Rosyth, marks the beginning of the ship’s assembly phase and comes only days after David Cameron announced that HMS Prince of Wales will enter into service, ensuring that the UK will always have one aircraft carrier available.

Ian Booth, managing director at the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, said: “the carrier programme is significant and the announcement that HMS Prince of Wales will enter service means there is a real sense of excitement as we start to bring the second ship together.”

The aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are being delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership between BAE Systems, Thales UK, Babcock and the Ministry of Defence.

Each 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier will provide the armed forces with a four-acre military operating base, which can travel up to 500 miles per day to be deployed anywhere around the world. And will operate with the F35-Lightning II jets and a number of types of helicopter.