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UK's Aircraft Carrier HMS Prince Of Wales Leads Largest F-35B Stealth Jet Deployment In Europe.
The Royal Navy has embarked 24 UK F-35B Lightning jets on HMS Prince of Wales for Italy’s Exercise Falcon Strike in the Mediterranean, the largest British F-35B concentration on a European deck. The fifth‑generation air wing underscores high‑tempo strike power and allied deterrence as the UK Carrier Strike Group concludes its Indo‑Pacific to Med deployment under Operation Highmast.
On 6 November 2025, The Royal British Navy embarked the largest concentration of UK F-35B Lightning jets ever to sail on a European deck, with 24 aircraft now aboard flagship HMS Prince of Wales for the Italian-led Exercise Falcon Strike. After five months in the Indo-Pacific, the UK Carrier Strike Group returns to the Mediterranean with a sovereign fifth-generation air wing sized for high-tempo operations at sea, a move designed to demonstrate allied reach and deterrence. The deployment forms part of Operation HIGHMAST, an eight-month mission spanning 26,000 nautical miles and engagement with 40 nations, as reported by the Royal British Navy.
The HMS Prince of Wales is the United Kingdom’s newest aircraft carrier, designed for high‑tempo operations, and it currently hosts the F‑35B Lightning II stealth fighter jets, advanced short‑takeoff and vertical‑landing aircraft that form the core of Britain’s fifth‑generation air power at sea (Picture Source: Royal British Navy)
HMS Prince of Wales, the newer of the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, is purpose-built around STOVL operations with a ski-jump flight deck and integrated electric propulsion, enabling rapid deck cycles for the F-35B. The current air wing draws from 809 Naval Air Squadron and 617 Squadron, with additional jets from 207 Squadron based at RAF Marham to reach the record total. Day-and-night serials with Italian, US and Greek air forces will stress mission planning, contested-environment tactics and deck handling at scale. The Carrier Strike Group has been joined by Italian frigate ITS Luigi Rizzo and operates alongside British and Norwegian escorts, following a Red Sea transit and a port call at Souda Bay that included a change of command to Captain Ben Power, signals of both endurance and operational continuity.
This concentration of UK F-35Bs marks a step change from the 2021 strike group deployment, when HMS Queen Elizabeth sailed with 18 F-35Bs split between the UK and the US Marine Corps. By assembling 24 British jets on a single deck in 2025, the Royal British Navy demonstrates it can generate massed, sovereign fifth-generation airpower at sea without relying on USMC augmentation, an operational milestone explicitly tied to HIGHMAST and the maturation of the Lightning Force. The government frames the Mediterranean phase as a reinforcement of NATO security after months in the Indo-Pacific, with allied drills intended to validate warfighting readiness and interoperability.
From a technical and procedural standpoint, the progression is clear. The Queen Elizabeth-class was designed from the outset for high-volume STOVL operations, with deck geometry and automated handling enabling rapid turnarounds, while the F-35B brings sensor fusion, low observability and data-linking that compress kill chains at sea. Training serials in Falcon Strike focus on integrating this fifth-generation picture with fourth-generation assets and maritime command networks, sharpening tactics for sea-based offensive counter-air, strike, and protection of high-value units. The deck mass now embarked allows the strike group commander to practice surge waves, sustained sortie generation and complex composite air operations with the escorts’ Type 45 area-air defence and Type 23 anti-submarine layers in support.
Compared with other NATO partners, the Royal British Navy is fielding Europe’s only carrier deck currently able to embark two dozen fifth-generation fighters. Italy’s programme has achieved F-35B initial operational capability and is expanding with the activation of a second F-35B squadron, but the Italian carrier air wing has not yet operated at this scale. France’s Charles de Gaulle remains a potent CATOBAR platform with Rafale M and E-2, yet it does not field a stealth fighter; the UK’s current edge lies specifically in concentrated fifth-generation mass at sea. The United States is the only other NATO member to have embarked comparable STOVL numbers, having demonstrated the “Lightning carrier” concept with 20 F-35Bs on USS Tripoli, still fewer than the 24 now sailing on Prince of Wales. Spain, meanwhile, has ruled out acquiring F-35Bs, creating a looming gap as its Harriers retire, which underscores how singular the UK-Italy STOVL axis has become within NATO.
Strategically, massing 24 F-35Bs aboard a single Royal British Navy carrier signals credible, sovereign striking power on NATO’s southern flank at a moment of sustained tension from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Black Sea approaches. It assures allies that the UK can project fifth-generation air operations from the sea with endurance, while deepening interoperability with Italy, the United States and Greece through shared tactics, common logistics among F-35 users and integrated maritime-air command structures. The Mediterranean phase also caps a year in which the UK deliberately linked Indo-Pacific and European theatres under HIGHMAST, demonstrating that a European carrier force can shift theatres, generate mass and remain mission-ready after long-range deployments, an important message for deterrence, crisis response and the protection of key sea lines of communication.
The arrival of this unprecedented British F-35B air wing at sea is therefore more than a numerical record; it is a demonstration of sustained carrier competence, strategic mobility and allied integration. By validating high-tempo fifth-generation operations in the Mediterranean after an Indo-Pacific tour, the Royal British Navy underscores that Europe can field and sustain meaningful stealth airpower at sea, strengthening NATO’s responsiveness and credibility where it matters most.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.