Published 14:19 IST, September 24th 2020
Watch US-made F-35B 5-gen fighter's vertical landing at NATO's largest annual exercise
Two squadrons of F-35B stealth jets, UK’s 617 Squadron, Dambusters, US Marines Corps VMFA-211 and Wake Island Avengers, have joined the 65,000-tonnes carrier.
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US-me F-35B stealth fighter aircraft belonging to US and UK Air Forces have joined United Kingdom's premier aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in its naval exercise that forms part of rth Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or rth Atlantic Alliance.
Amid this, UK's Ministry of Defence tweeted a video of F-35B - which is predominant fifth-generation fighter aircraft in world right w - landing vertically on aircraft carrier.
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15 jets and 8 Merlin helicopters
Besides two squrons of F-35B stealth jets, 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier also welcomed UK’s 617 Squron, Dambusters and US Marines Corps VMFA-211, Wake Island Avengers, as she sailed for exercises with allies in rth Sea, according to Medium.com.
month-long exercise is said to culminate in late October. Carrier Strike Group is a part of Joint Warrior, which is NATO's largest annual exercise to be conducted near rast coast of Scotland.
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With a total of 15 jets and eight Merlin helicopters, it’s largest concentration of fighter jets to operate at sea from a Royal Navy carrier since HMS Hermes in 1983, and largest air group of fifth-generation fighters at sea anywhere in world.
HMS Queen Elizabeth will be joined by seven Royal Navy destroyers, frigates and auxiliaries, plus or supporting units, to form a fully sovereign Carrier Strike Group, rey to fight on surface and in air.
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HMS Queen Elizabeth and her 1680 sailors, aviators and marines are due to return to her home port of Portsmouth in late October.
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14:19 IST, September 24th 2020