Portsmouth’s Royal Navy Type 45 HMS Duncan learns the ropes for HMS Queen Elizabeth by working with USS carriers John C Stennis and USS Abraham Lincoln off Malta

HMS Duncan behind the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis in the Mediterranean this week Picture: US Navy Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Grant G. Grady

DESTROYER HMS Duncan has joined two huge Nimitz-class US warships in an international flotilla to carry out joint exercises in the Mediterranean.

The Portsmouth-based Type 45 sailed alongside 200,000 tonnes of naval might as she slipped into the USS John C Stennis and USS Abraham Lincoln carrier battle groups off the coast of Malta.

HMS Duncan thanked for work against Isis

In doing so the ship’s company have been honing skills needed to work with Britain’s new Queen Elizabeth-class flagships – HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

Duncan is one of six Type 45 destroyers built to defend a task group from air attack as well as to guide jet fighters and bombers on to targets.