HMS Queen Elizabeth: F-35 jets land on Royal Navy carrier for first time in British waters

The Royal Navy’s future fleet flagship departed Portsmouth for further flight trials on Friday and these are already underway.

HMS Queen Elizabeth’s official Twitter account announced the carrier’s latest landmark moment on social media this afternoon.

They tweeted: ‘Another key milestone achieved on our journey to #CSG21 as jets fly to a British carrier in British waters for the first time in a decade #UKF35

‘This @OC207Sqn (207 Squadron) training comes ahead of exercises with our operational squadron @OC617Sqn (OC 617 Squadron) later this year.’

The account also posted three pictures of the F-35 jets landing on the decks of HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The 65,000-tonne warship’s departure from her home base in Portsmouth was delayed by 72 hours after suffering an ‘embarrassing’ fault.

HMS Queen Elizabeth was scheduled to leave on Tuesday morning but this was scuppered and sources on the naval base claimed it was because of a mechanical fault with the warship’s huge generators.

The carrier is scheduled to spend several weeks carrying out the latest set of trials, however the Royal Navy refused to say how long she will be at sea for or how long the flight trials are expected to take.

Previous F-35 tests have lasted about five weeks.