On May 22, 2021, Queen Elizabeth II visited the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth at HM Naval Base in Portsmouth, to bid them farewell ahead of the ship’s maiden operational deployment. The Queen is the Sponsor of HMS Queen Elizabeth, one of the two largest warships ever built by Royal Navy. The aircraft carrier will embark on her first operational deployment on May 23. The aircraft carrier will cover 26,000 nautical miles in 28 weeks, from the Mediterranean to the Philippine Sea.