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