Russia Today fell for a brazen April Fool’s joke claiming the Ministry of Defence was planning to exceed its entire budget several times over to construct the ‘HMS Prince Andrew’
Vladimir Putin’s state propaganda network was left red-faced after journalists fell for an April Fool’s joke announcing the “HMS Prince Andrew”.
Russia Today has been relentlessly mocked online after the media service reported an April 1 news story as fact, claiming the Royal Navy had revealed plans to construct an aircraft carrier named after the disgraced prince that could carry “infinite planes”. The story, originally published in the UK Defence Journal, claimed the trillion-pound vessel would also boast crayons alongside its neverending supply of advanced jets. RT failed to note key details scattered throughout the article that betrayed its less-than-serious nature.
The piece’s author, Avril Fuller, wrote that the Government was prepared to drop a stunning £987.6 billion to build what would have been the Navy’s third carrier alongside the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, named for King Charles III. The latter two cost £6 billion and £3 billion apiece, with the total cost for the April Fools vessel massively outpacing the Ministry of Defence’s entire £57.1 billion budget.
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The trillion pounds, the piece added, would also pay for go-faster stripes and a collection of crayons it said would help speed up planning. The cherry on the fictional cake was the decision to name the single most expensive vessel in the fleet – and British history – after the scandal-hit Duke of York.
State broadcaster RT seemed to take the story at face value, however, reporting Britain had plans “to expand navy due to Russian ‘threat’”. And it dug into the details, suggesting the HMS Prince Andrew was “projected to measure 480 metres in length and will be capable of deploying an estimated infinity-hundred aircraft — giving it a theoretical edge over any known carrier fleet in existence, real or imagined”.
Social media users were quick to pounce on the gaffe, stating the journalists “really should know better” and taking aim at the Russian media. One user said: “UKDJ does April Fools articles every year so RT really should know better.” Another added: “Wait, RT isn’t a joke publication like The Onion? Oh…”
A third said: “No sense of humour these Russians.” Several other users also took aim at the Russian media landscape, saying the country under Vladimir Putin has “ignored” the truth. One commenter wrote: “They’re so used to lying, it must be hard for them to separate fact from fiction.” And another added: “They don’t know what facts are. Too long ignored.”
UK Defence Journal editor George Allison celebrated the win on social media this week, hailing a “fantastic week” after tricking Russian state media into “reporting nonsense about an aircraft carrier”. He wrote on X: “I tricked Russian State media into reporting nonsense about an aircraft carrier named HMS Prince Andrew with ‘go faster stripes and crayons’, it’s been a fantastic week.”
Expanding on the win, he told The Sun : “As part of our usual April Fools’ Day tradition, we published a clearly satirical piece about a fictional third aircraft carrier – HMS Prince Andrew – complete with absurd details like go-faster stripes and crayons.
“It was meant to be obviously fake, and it was written to make people laugh.”