Britain’s biggest warship left Portsmouth in June 2022 bound for exercises in the Atlantic and Mediterranean in her latest foray as NATO’s command ship. The 65,000-ton aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales completed two weeks of preparations off the South Coast before joining warships from across NATO for Spanish-led training and visits to Spainish ports.
The aircraft carrier visited Rota on Spain’s west coast, before linking up with a multinational task group for Spain’s annual exercises, known as FLOTEX. It involved a large contingent of Spanish ships and included NATO task groups (Standing NATO Maritime Group 2 and Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2), which are responsible for the security of shipping in the Mediterranean. The ship’s commanding officer was Captain Richard Hewitt, and the following is Richard M. Jones’ account of the ship’s activities over the course of a week in the middle of June.
MONDAY 13 JUNE 2022
It is hot outside, over 30 degrees in the early morning, and set to get hotter. The wind is picking up, and walking through the dockyard resembles the feeling of opening an oven door and having the hot air blast in your face. For HMS Prince
