ROSYTH: Queen Elizabeth officially named the biggest warship Britain has ever built on Friday amid uncertainty over Scotland’s coming independence referendum and future British defence spending.

A crowd of 4,000 gathered in this Scottish port to watch pipe bands and dancers perform before the monarch pressed a button to smash a bottle of Scotch whisky against the hull of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the first of two new aircraft carriers worth 6.2 billion pounds ($10.6bn).

British Prime Minister David Cameron was in the audience along with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, a champion of independence in the Sept 18 vote, and stressed the links between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

“HMS Queen Elizabeth is the flagship of our nation’s maritime ambition,” Cameron said in a statement released by his office.

“She is an investment in the future of British security, British prosperity and our country’s place in the world.” Britain’s defence sector employs more than 12,600 people in Scotland, according to government figures, with around 4,000 jobs directly linked to the aircraft carriers project.

The Union flag flew prominently from the 65,000 tonne ship’s mast, while a Royal Marine Band played the British national anthem twice during the 90 minute-long ceremony.

Apart from the referendum context, the show of military might and engineering expertise also came at a time of financial uncertainty. It is not clear if the identical second vessel, which is already being built, will join the Royal Navy’s fleet.

Defence Cuts

The government won’t decide its future until a defence spending review in the second half of next year. Defence experts say it could still be mothballed or sold.

Nor is it known how many US-built F-35 jets it will carry. The carrier project is already 2.6 billion pounds over the original budget set out seven years ago.

The original plan was to buy 138 F-35s, but so far London has only committed to 48 and bought just three for training.

The US military on Thursday said it had grounded its entire fleet of F-35 jets pending engine inspections after a fire last month on an Air Force F-35A jet.

Even though it has made cuts, Britain remains the world’s fourth biggest military spender and Cameron says an independent Scotland would struggle to match Britain’s armed forces.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2014