The British Royal Navy’s newly commissioned first Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, reportedly experienced a leak due to a faulty shaft seal.

The 65,000t Royal Navy aircraft carrier has been taking in up to 200l of sea water every hour as a result of the fault, reported The Sun.

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A Royal Navy spokesman was quoted by media sources as saying: “An issue with a shaft seal has been identified during HMS Queen Elizabeth’s sea trials.

“The 65,000t Royal Navy aircraft carrier has been taking in up to 200l of sea water every hour as a result of the fault.”

“This is scheduled for repair while she is alongside at Portsmouth.

“It does not prevent her from sailing again and her sea trials programme will not be affected.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth was commissioned into the UK Navy fleet on 7 December and has an estimated service life of 50 years.

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When questioned about how the cost of the repair would be funded, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson was quoted by BBC News as saying: “This is the reason why we have the sea trials, to make sure that everything is working absolutely perfectly.

“This is something that work is currently ongoing to deal with.”

It has been reported that the repairs on the vessel are expected to cost millions of pounds.

The 280m-long, 70m-wide vessel was built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance as part of a £6.2bn project, which also saw the delivery of the second Queen Elizabeth-class carrier, HMS Prince of Wales.

The Aircraft Carrier Alliance is a consortium comprising UK-based engineering companies BAE Systems and Babcock, as well as the British arm of France’s Thales.