Royal Navy’s leaky aircraft carrier spent 335 days in dock after floods stopped her sailing last year

THE Navy’s new £3.1bn aircraft carrier spent just 30 days at sea last year after floods prevented her sailing.

HMS Prince of Wales suffered a series of leaks that will cost £3.3 million to repair.

Top Brass had to cancel a voyage to America, to train with F-35 jets, after sea water swamped an engine room and blew the ship's electric motors.

It was the second flood in five months due to dodgy internal plumbing.

Former Labour veterans minister Kevan Jones said it was a “significant concern” that the floods cut short the warship’s training.

“Carrier Strike Group is central to our maritime posture,” he said.

“Efforts must now be made to ensure Prince of Wales is made available as soon as possible in order for joint-US operations to go ahead on schedule.”

Sister ship HMS Queen Elizabeth spent nearly four times as long at sea last year.

Both of the ships now need an additional £2.2million of upgrades to their high pressure sprinkler systems to stop leaks happening again.

A source said the plumbing joints were made of “shoddy push to fit plastic,” similar to those used in domestic fittings.

In May water poured through a ceiling onboard HMS Prince of Wales into a sailors' living area.

The Navy insisted the vessel, which was commissioned in 2019, “was always scheduled to spend much of 2020 at Portsmouth as part of planned equipment enhancements to ensure it is ready for operations”.