Stealth jet shown soaring off from HMS Queen Elizabeth in stunning footage
Stunning footage shows stealth jets in action on board the UK’s flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
An elite F-35B warplane can be seen soaring into the air from the gigantic runway, engine roaring.
The 65,000-tonne carrier left Portsmouth earlier this week and is sailing for exercises in the North Sea.
It will later be joined by a strike group including seven Royal Navy destroyers, which the commander says will put “real muscle back into Nato”.
Jets from the RAF’s famed 617 Squadron (The Dambusters) have been joined by allies from the US Marine Corps aboard the ship.
It is the largest number of warplanes ever on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth.
In total, 14 jets and eight Merlin helicopters are operating on board, the largest concentration of fighter jets to operate at sea from a Royal Navy carrier for nearly 40 years.
In this month’s group exercise, 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.
The group will be put through its paces off the north east coast of Scotland as part of Joint Warrior, Nato’s largest annual exercise.
Commodore Steve Moorhouse, commander UK Carrier Strike Group, said: “The United Kingdom’s maritime renaissance has been unfolding over many years, as we introduced a new generation of ships, submarines and aircraft into service.
“But this marks the first time we have brought them together in a cohesive, potent fighting force.
“HMS Queen Elizabeth will be operating with the largest air group of fifth-generation fighters assembled anywhere in the world.
“Led by the Royal Navy, and backed by our closest allies, this new Carrier Strike Group puts real muscle back into Nato and sends a clear signal that the United Kingdom takes its global role seriously.”
Commanding officer of 617 Squadron, Royal Navy Commander Mark Sparrow, said: “This is an incredibly exciting time for 617 Squadron as we begin a new era of partnership with the US Marine Corps building towards next year’s operational deployment with HMS Queen Elizabeth.
“You need to go back more than three decades to find the UK operating anything on this scale or complexity and this is a first for fifth-generation carrier capability.
“The era of big deck, fast jet carrier operations is back.”
HMS Queen Elizabeth, along with her 1,680 sailors, aviators and marines, is due to return to her home port of Portsmouth next month.