HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Prince of Wales, Royal Navy warships ¦ This is North Devon

HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be the biggest warships ever built in the British Isles.

And when completed they will be the largest ever operated by the Royal Navy.

LEVIATHAN: A computer generated image of the Future Carrier, the need for which was identified following the Strategic Defence Review.
MEASURING UP: Part of a presentation on the yard's work on the new aircraft carriers shows how they compare to other carriers. Photo: Mike Southon 1002-12_01

The most significant parts built so far have been completed here in North Devon at a very proud Appledore Shipyard.

The whole assembly process of the Queen Elizabeth carrier in Rosyth, Scotland, was kick-started by the dispatch of 300 tonnes of steel blocks called sponsons from Appledore in August last year.

The blocks will form part of the sides of the two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers, giving the flight deck the width needed to enable movement of planes.

The shipyard's £50 million Queen Elizabeth Class Carrier project has secured 300 jobs in North Devon until 2015.

Those working on the Queen Elizabeth Class Contract include blacksmiths, welders, shipwrights, riggers, burners, grinders, design draftsmen and scaffolders.

The ships will be much larger than even HMS Ark Royal IV — the UK's last comparable ship — which was scrapped in 1979.

Each will have a crew of around 1,400 and measure 284 metres in length and 73 metres across the flight-deck.

The need for the ships was established as long ago as 1998, when the Strategic Defence Review announced plans for the replacement of the Royal Navy's three existing light carriers with two much larger and more capable vessels.