British and American F-35 pilots in 'dogfight' over the North Sea ahead of joining Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth
STEALTH jet pilots have taken to the skies in a series of mock dogfights ahead of their debut on a £3.1bn British aircraft carrier.
British and American F-35B aviators, who will be touching down in HMS Queen Elizabeth later this month, joined 50 other fighters and bombers during an exercise over the North Sea.
The aerial war game, known as Point Blank, saw the fearsome jets sharing the skies with RAF Typhoons, US Air Force F-15 Strike Eagles, F-16s and the mighty B-52 bombers.
Stealth jet pilots, including some from the Dutch military, were pitted against UK Typhoon squadrons in a series of mock battles.
The exercise was designed to sharpen the skills and drills of Britain’s 617 Squadron and the US Marine Corps VMFA 211 Squadron of F-35 fighters.
The pair will embark on HMS Queen Elizabeth for a few weeks for a final workout of the ship and her broader task group later this month before deploying with her next year on her first operational mission.
Commander Mark Sparrow, the Fleet Air Arm Officer in charge of 617 Squadron – whose air and ground personnel are drawn from both the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force – described Point Blank as ‘the first of the many important steps needed to create a fully-integrated carrier strike group’ ahead of next year’s mission.
‘It’s been a fantastic first step in 617 Squadron operations with the US Marine Corps’ VMFA 211 Squadron as we prepare to embark on HMS Queen Elizabeth as a team,’ he said.
‘The exercise provided excellent integration training and this integration is key to Lightning operations.’
Queen Elizabeth returned to Portsmouth yesterday to collect supplies for her final training exercise.
She is expected to leave later this week more than a dozen with the F-35s expected to join her at sea.
The 65,000-tonne warship is due to be surrounded by a fleet of warships, which will include Type 45 destroyers HMS Defender and HMS Diamond, Type 23 frigates HMS Kent and HMS Northumberland, a British submarine, American destroyer USS The Sullivans, Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen and two Royal Fleet Auxiliary support ships, RFA Tideforce and RFA Fort Victoria.
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