Скачать или смотреть ‘WAKE ISLAND AVENGERS’ ABOARD HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH

History has been made with the embarkation aboard the Royal Navy super-carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth of F-35B strike jets from Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 211 (VMFA-211) as the ship sails in the North Sea.

The Short- Take-off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) jets had flown from their home base of Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma, Arizona to MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina, and then on to RAF Marham, England in early September.

The USMC F-35Bs conducted training with the joint RAF-Royal Navy 617 Squadron of F-35Bs located at the UK base before both British and US Marine Corps jets headed for their North Sea rendezvous with Queen Elizabeth.

Assembled on the vast flight-deck of the carrier, the aircraft made an impressive sight, the most F-35Bs ever assembled aboard Queen Elizabeth. It was an historic milestone as the ship prepares for next year’s initial front-line mission to points east of Suez. There will be a combined UK and USMC air wing embarked for that Carrier Strike Group 21 deployment.

Known as ‘Wake Island Avengers’ - a reference to the USMC’s key role in taking the fight to Japan in WW2 - VMFA-211’s aviators and support personnel made elaborate preparations for this autumn’s embarkation in HMS Queen Elizabeth, not least in COVID-19 counter-measures. Likewise, HMS Queen Elizabeth did not sailed from her home base of Portsmouth until it was certain she would not suffer from a coronavirus outbreak.

A total of 14 x F-35Bs and eight Merlin helicopters are operating from HMS Queen Elizabeth and the British carrier is to spearhead a NATO strike group during a Group Exercise, itself held within the context of a Joint Warrior combat exercise in seas off Scotland.

For a report and images on the historic combined UK and USMC embarkation in HMS Queen Elizabeth, see the forthcoming November edition of WARSHIPS IFR magazine, which is out soon.

Video of F-35Bs operating from HMS Queen Elizabeth, courtesy of the Royal Navy/UK MoD.

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