British HMS Queen Elizabeth heading for Carrier-Strike GROUPEX training with Marine F-35s.

The Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has departed Portsmouth, with 820NAS Merlins on deck, for a short-cruise, ahead of training drills with U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters, Heading for ex JointWarrior and Carrier Strike GROUPEX including US and Dutch warships.
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HMS Queen Elizabeth R08 arriving back in Portsmouth July 2, 2020, after a period at sea conducting Operational Sea Training. (Picture source: UK Royal Navy)

U.K.’s new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) has departed Portsmouth, England for a short cruise ahead of training drills with U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lighting II Joint Strike Fighters.

The “Wake Island Avengers” of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211 flew to the United Kingdom last week to train aboard Queen Elizabeth. According to a Marine Corps spokesman, 10 F-35Bs flew to the U.K. to partake in the Group Exercise, also known as GroupEx, for several weeks aboard the British aircraft carrier.

“GroupEx will establish selective interoperability to address gaps and mitigate risks within the U.S. and U.K.’s respective individual forces,” 1st Lt. Zachary Bodner, a spokesman for VMFA-211, told USNI News in a statement.

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the biggest and most advanced UK warship. (Picture source: UK Royal Navy)

About the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier:

HMS Queen Elizabeth is the lead ship of the Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carriers, the largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy. Capable of carrying 60 aircraft of both fixed-wing, rotary-wing and autonomous vehicles, she is named in honour of the first Queen Elizabeth, a World War I era super-dreadnought, which in turn was named after Queen Elizabeth I.

The two ships of the Queen Elizabeth class are each expected to be capable of carrying over forty aircraft, with a normal maximum load of thirty-six F-35s and four helicopters, but a theoretical surge capacity of up to 72 aircraft.

Technical Review on HMS Queen Elizabeth here