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HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain's largest warship, reached Mayport Naval Station in Florida on Wednesday before the F-35 fighter trials later this month.
The news has been posted on their official Twitter page as they reached the coast of the United States. The purpose of the mission is to introduce the fighter carrier F-35B, which will be its base firepower once fully operational.
Another Royal Navy ship joins Queen Elizabeth in Florida, the 23 HMS Monmouth frigate.
The Monmouth will be an escort during the F-35B trials and left the UK six days after the HMS Queen Elizabeth on August 23, the British military publication Forces Network announced.
The Florida Times-Union military reporter, Joe Daraskevich, posted on Wednesday a video showing only the HMS Queen Elizabeth (280m long) next to the slightly smaller USS Iwo Jima (257m):
Although it is the largest military ship in Mayport, the HMS Queen Elizabeth is still dominated by the largest carriers of the US Navy. USS Gerald R. Ford and USS George H.W. Bush are respectively 337m and 332m long.
Unlike its American counterparts, who have flat flight platforms, the HMS Queen Elizabeth has a "ski jumping" ramp at one end, which will give airplanes a little more height at takeoff.
Here is a video of F-35 practicing on a ski jump replica:
Queen Elizabeth left Portsmouth, United Kingdom, for America on August 18, for an 11-week training trip. During the mission, Queen Elizabeth will host the F-35s of the US Marine Corps.
The British Royal Air Force has its own F-35s, the first of which arrived in the UK earlier this year and will eventually steal from the carrier.
The Armed Forces Network stated that the HMS Queen Elizabeth had stopped at the Naval Base in Mayport, Florida, before refueling the last stretch until Navux Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.
No official date has been given for the first landing of the F-35B on the ship, but it is scheduled for the end of September, the British newspaper Defense Journal reported Wednesday.
Local TV channel WJXT News said the ship would be in Mayport a few days before heading to Maryland. This base is in Chesapeake Bay, about 62 miles south of Washington, DC.
Here is the Twitter post of their arrival at Mayport:
Upon arrival, the group performed the British national anthem "God Save the Queen".
The deployment in the United States is important because it will mark the first combat aircraft to land on a British aircraft carrier in eight years, since the decommissioning of HMS Ark Royal.
The F-35B airliners will be flown by four pilots from the Integrated Test Force, a unit comprising British and American pilots, from the Patuxent River Naval Air Base.
In a statement, HMS Queen Elizabeth captain Jerry Kyd said: "Crossing a major ocean with 1,500 sailors, crews and marines on board and anticipating the first landing of the F-35B Lightning on the bridge in September is very exciting for all of us … this deployment demonstrates the amazing collaboration that will allow the new F-35B aircraft to travel regularly from our Queen Elizabeth class carriers. "
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