3rd November 2023 at 4:40pm
HMS Queen Elizabeth has left Portsmouth Naval Base the same way she arrived – with her F-35 fighter jets lined up on the flight deck.
The Royal Navy’s flagship had returned to her home port last Sunday, having spent time deployed in northern European waters with her Nato and Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) allies.
Unusually, the £3bn vessel returned with her embarked F-35Bs on her flight deck – and the state-of-the-art jets remained there as she set sail from Portsmouth on Friday afternoon.
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Friends, families and members of the public gathered on the city’s walls to wave off the ship and her crew.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, HMS Queen Elizabeth’s official account said the ship was returning to the North Sea.
“Farewell, Portsmouth! After a brief logistics stop we’re back to sea to resume our NATO tasking with our allies and partners in the North Sea. We’ve achieved a lot so far, but there’s much more to come!” the post said.
A Royal Navy spokesperson earlier said the ship had returned to Portsmouth for a logistics stop and a short period of maintenance.
The carrier and its aircraft recently took part in a range of exercises and training off the Norwegian coast.
The Royal Navy said the activity came as the UK Carrier Strike Group, led by HMS Queen Elizabeth, ramped up its work alongside its JEF allies.
HMS Queen Elizabeth sailed in Norway’s fjords and also visited the Swedish city of Gothenburg where events were hosted on board to “forge deeper bonds between the nations’ armed forces”.
JEF is a high-readiness task group committed to regional security that can respond to crises either alongside or independent of Nato.