Queen names new Royal Navy aircraft carrier in Rosyth

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the largest warship ever built in the UK

The Queen is due to give her name to the largest warship built in the UK at a ceremony in Fife's Rosyth dockyard.

She will smash a bottle of whisky on the hull of the 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth - the first of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers being built.

PM David Cameron and First Minister Alex Salmond are both due to attend.

Six shipyards in the UK - Appledore, Birkenhead, Govan, Portsmouth, Rosyth and Tyne - have been involved in building parts of the carrier.

The warship - the largest ever built in and for the UK - is as long as 25 buses and can carry 40 jets and helicopters at a time. It will have a permanent crew of almost 700 when it enters service in 2020.

How the massive warship will eventually look when it is fully fitted out and floated

The Queen will perform the naming ceremony at Rosyth with a bottle of whisky rather than champagne.

The monarch will smash a bottle of Islay malt whisky, from Bowmore Distillery, against the ship.

Bowmore was the first distillery the Queen ever visited in an official capacity.

The carrier has still to be fitted out and floated, to make way for the assembly of its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales.

Assembly of HMS Prince of Wales is set to begin at Rosyth later this year.

Work on the two carriers is expected to cost £6.2bn.

More than 10,000 people in more than 100 companies across the country have worked on its construction.

The naming of the warship comes five years after the first metal was cut on the vessel and 33 months after the first section entered the dry dock at Rosyth for assembly.

HMS Illustrious sailed under the Forth Rail Bridge on Tuesday night on its way to Rosyth

Firefighters had to be called to a fire on board the ship last month.

It is believed that a small fire had started in one of the vessel's hull compartments.

Fire crews reported only minor damage.

When the naming ceremony was announced earlier his year, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said it would a be a "proud and history day" for the Royal Navy and the nation.

He said at the time: "This occasion will mark a major milestone in regenerating the UK's aircraft-carrier fleet and its power projection capability, with the first Lightning II aircraft due to begin flight trials off the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2018."

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir George Zambellas said in February: "The Royal Navy is delighted that Her Majesty will name this great ship - the first of a class that will return fast-jet carrier operations to our nation's war fighting credibility."

The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has been assembled in Rosyth

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