AIRCRAFT carrier HMS Ark Royal has been dousing her upper decks with water during the latest stage of Basic Operational Sea Training in the English Channel.

Sprinklers thrust water on to the upper deck in anticipation of a biological warfare attack in a process known as ‘pre-wetting’.

The idea is that any chemical agents would be unable to stick to the ship and would simply slide off the slippery deck. (It’s a system fitted not merely to the flat-top but all major British warships).

Ark emerged from refit in Rosyth last autumn as a helicopter carrier and assault ship similar to HMS Ocean.

To mark her new mission (which she will carry out later this year as NATO’s on-call flagship), Ark now wears the legendary Combined Operations insignia on her superstructure.

Seventy ‘gremlins’ (more correctly Sea Riders from the Flag Officer Sea Training’s organisation who run BOST) joined Ark both alongside and at sea off Plymouth to cause havoc for the ship’s company – and judge how the sailors reacted to problems.

More challenging (and more interesting, perhaps, as this is the first true test of Ark in her new role) was the amphibious phase which the flat-top was in the midst of as Navy News went to press.