HMS Prince of Wales Returns to Portsmouth After Deployment

Thousands of British service personnel returned home to emotional reunions with their families on Sunday, November 30, 2025, as the Royal Navy's flagship aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales docked at Portsmouth Naval Base, marking the end of an eight-month multinational deployment.

The Queen Elizabeth-class carrier, valued at 3.2 billion pounds, arrived around 1 p.m. local time, accompanied by the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless and the Norwegian frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen. Crowds of relatives and friends lined the waterfront, waving flags and holding banners to greet the sailors, airmen, and marines after their 40,000-nautical-mile voyage. The early arrival, the largest naval homecoming in two decades, was prompted by forecasts of heavy winds exceeding 50 miles per hour on Monday, which could have delayed the ships in the English Channel. Frigate HMS Richmond, another escort vessel, was scheduled to return to Plymouth over the weekend, while HNoMS Roald Amundsen headed to Norway.

The deployment, known as Operation Highmast, began in April and involved diplomatic visits and joint military exercises across the Mediterranean, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Indo-Pacific...