Queen to give her name to UK's largest warship with whisky, not champagne

In a departure from tradition, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II will smash a bottle of Islay malt whisky from the Bowmore Distillery, rather than a bottle of champagne on the hull of the nation's largest warship, which is to be named after her.

Built in the UK, the warship will be formerly put to sea at a ceremony from the Fife's Rosyth dockyard sometime today.

The 65,000-tonne HMS Queen Elizabeth is the first of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers being built, and the ceremony for its launch into the sea will be witnessed by Prime Minister David Cameron and Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond, reports the BBC.

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

The warship is reportedly 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.

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.