اخبار گوهردشت - Warship leak 'embarrassing' but worse things have happened at sea

Leaks on ships occur from time to time. One former sailor I spoke to says it happened "on multiple occasions on different ships throughout my career".

HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently undergoing sea trials - the very purpose of this programme is to find and fix faults.

In this case the leak is from a faulty seal around the prop shaft, a bit like a faulty washer. Divers need to go down, find it and replace the seal.

She is in Portsmouth - her home port - and she will be repaired there.

A leak of 200 litres an hour, on a ship this size, will create a big puddle. If it was bigger, she would have to go into dry docks for repair - that would be more serious because there isn't a facility near Portsmouth and it would almost certainly have an impact on her trials.

The Navy knew about the leak when the Queen was on board last week for the Commissioning ceremony.

This does make it a little embarrassing because of all the fanfare that went into that day, but when asked why they didn't come clean and reveal the leak then, the answer was: "Because it's just routine stuff - honestly, we don't give these things a second thought.

It is worth noting that if the leak was genuinely significant then the Navy might have decided not to accept her into service until it was sorted.

It is also good to include some historical comparisons - the Astute submarine programme also had a leak issue, but far more serious.

One of the nuclear-powered hunter killer submarines had to perform an emergency surface when water started coming in. That wasn't good.

Only today, the MOD has been roundly criticised for another big equipment programme, the F35.

The defence select committee has said it is "unacceptable" that the military cannot say how much a single jet will cost and have warned that the aircraft carrier will need much stronger bandwidth than it currently has, if it is to perform properly.