THE construction of the "largest and most powerful warship" ever built for the Royal Navy moved forward as the second section of its 11,000-tonne hull was made ready to travel to its assembly yard.

The section of HMS Queen Elizabeth was moved out of a hall at BAE Systems' Govan Shipyard in Glasgow ready for loading on to a barge for its 600-mile journey to the Fife dockyard next month.

A team of 40 people moved the section, known as Lower Block 04, across reinforced Tarmac in less than three hours using 450 remote controlled transporters.

The 80m long and 40m wide section, which houses a hospital, a dentist surgery and 242 accommodation berths, will take five days to travel to Rosyth where it will be joined up with the other parts of the ship constructed in Portsmouth.

Angus Holt, Queen Elizabeth Class block delivery director at BAE Systems, said yesterday: "Today marks the culmination of months of hard work and preparation and I am extremely proud of the team's achievements in successfully loading out the aft section on time and built to an exceptional standard.

"The size and complexity of the block both highlights the skill of our workforce."

The Queen Elizabeth is due to be completed by 2016, with another aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, following later. They could be deployed in active service from 2017.

They are being delivered by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, a partnership between BAE Systems, Thales UK, Babcock and the Ministry of Defence.

Project director Steven Carroll described it as "the largest and most powerful warship we've ever built for the Royal Navy".