US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning IIs of VMFA-211 ‘Wake Island Avengers’ recently joined HMS Queen Elizabeth for a joint embarkation alongside 617 Sqn. As Peter R Foster reports, this was just one of a series of exercises staged out of RAF Marham during the marines’ deployment
Main photo: The VMFA-211 embarkation on HMS Queen Elizabeth alongside 617 Sqn saw the most F-35s going to sea on one ship so fa
USMC/1st Lt Zachary Bodner
Left: A VMFA-211 F-35B gets airborne off Queen Elizabeth’s ski-ramp. The US Navy’s Lightning-capable ships lack this feature
USMC/1st Lt Zachary Bodner
Given the infancy of the HMS Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group (CSG), the inclusion of VMFA-211 from the United States Marine Corps (USMC) to the ship’s air component was an opportunity for the UK military to extract USMC experience in ship-borne operations.
