UK-owned F-35B Lightning aircraft have joined the Royal Navy (RN) aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time to start a period of Operational Testing (OT-1) off the eastern seaboard of the United States.
UK F-35B aircraft embarked on HMS Queen Elizabeth for the first time on 13 October to undertake operational testing. (Royal Navy/Crown Copyright)
Four aircraft embarked on Queen Elizabeth on 13 October, to be followed by two more in the coming days.
Forming a central component of the RN’s ‘Westlant 19’ deployment, OT-1 is intended to ‘operationalise’ both the fixed-wing air group and the wider carrier strike group. The trials, planned to last approximately five weeks, are aimed at end-to-end testing of the aircraft and personnel (encompassing mission planning, arming the aircraft, executing missions, and debriefing).
Three of the F-35B aircraft embarking are operated by No 17(R) Test and Evaluation Squadron based at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The other three aircraft, drawn from the UK’s Lightning Force at Royal Air Force (RAF) Marham, had flown the previous week across the Atlantic to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina.
OT-1 follows on from Developmental Testing (DT-1/DT-2) performed in 2018 by two F-35B aircraft from the US-based F-35 Integrated Test Force. DT-1/DT-2, which was undertaken to establish F-35B operating limits from the Queen Elizabeth-class platform, saw over 500 take-offs and landings over an 11-week period.
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