Royal Navy sends four smallest ships to massive Nato exercise as £3.5billion warship has "issue"

Four of the smallest ships in the Royal Navy are preparing to head far north into the Arctic and take part in a major exercise that the fleet’s largest ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, has been forced to pull out of because of a propeller “issue”.

The departure of the fleet flagship from Portsmouth Naval Base at the weekend was cancelled at the last minute after final inspections spotted a problem with the starboard propeller coupling.

The £3.5 billion warship had been heading out to lead Exercise Steadfast Defender – the largest Nato exercise since the Cold War – which will take place off Norway’s Arctic coast in March.

Now, its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales is being readied to take its place.

But the four P2000 “plastic patrol craft” – HMS Biter, Blazer, Exploit and Trumpeter – sailed from Portsmouth on Monday as they make final preparations before heading to Norway.

The four vessels, which normally patrol coastlines, are tiny at just 68ft long and displacing 54 tonnes compared with the aircraft carriers which are 931ft long and displace 65,000 tonnes.

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