HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s second Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier, has embarked her first F-35 jet.

The Royal Navy said in a statement:

“An F-35B Lightning aircraft has landed onboard the Royal Navy’s latest aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, for the first time.

Taking place off the south coast of England, the milestone marks a significant step towards the 65,000-tonne vessel reaching full operational capability.

Operating together as part of Sea Acceptance Trials, it is the first time a fixed wing aircraft has landed onboard HMS Prince of Wales. The trials test the ship’s capability to receive and launch aircraft whilst maintaining continuous air operations.”

HMS Prince of Wales was due to conduct these trials off the US coast last year but issues (more about that below) meant she couldn’t.

656 Squadron and their Apache attack helicopters also recently joined HMS Prince of Wales for her sea trials. This was the first time the ship worked with Apache helicopters.

The carrier also recently tested her three Phalanx guns as part of efforts to make the vessel operational.

After the much-publicised first encounter at sea with her big sister HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group and a brief stopover in portsmouth, sea trials have now resumed.

The aircraft carrier was previously alongside in Portsmouth for just over one year. In May 2020, HMS Prince of Wales experienced flooding which the Royal Navy described (at the time) as minor but this was followed by more significant flooding in October 2020 which caused damage to her electrical cabling. The now repaired damage was so bad that the ship was unable to sail to America for fixed-wing aircraft trials.

The Royal Navy say that the carrier will shortly head to the south west coast for an intensive period of trials and training, establishing her lethality and ability to sustain operations.

207 Squadron F-35B pilot and the first to land onboard HMS Prince of Wales, Squadron Leader Will said:

“It was a real honour to be the first pilot to land the F-35B onboard HMS Prince of Wales.

With all the training that we have previously undertaken with HMS Queen Elizabeth, we are now looking forward to using that experience and knowledge working with HMS Prince of Wales as she moves towards her full operational capability.”

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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46 COMMENTS

    • Talk is off PoW somehow being used to guard the G7 summit. SAS team aboard with helicopters, Apache or even a flight of f35 for QRA?

      • Wouldn’t it be easier just to use Typhoon out of one of the regional stations where QRA facilities exist already? Those contingencies were put in after 9/11 in case of threat from the SW.

        Why bother with trials if already there are full QRA sorties underway from POW!

        I suspect a bit of rumour gone wild there regards POW. Might be wrong just my opinion.

      • It would be right out of Boris’s textbook to have her cruise around there for a bit though more as a pr exercise and show piece I would suspect rather than any actual need but why not play such cards. Aah just seen the news and there she is cruising for Boris and Joe.

    • I must admit I am somewhat puzzled what the Bedford array adds to the party as the flight rules are programmed into the F35B anyway.

      I suspect it is more an if-the-digital-goes-wrong here is a visual fallback.

      Unless the F35B is working like a Tesla and using cameras to pick up the array and adjust the rules dynamically that is……

      Something totally outside of my area of expertise so just speculating.

      • And as I understand the rolling landing is to enable them to land still carrying unused ordinance. I did not think it could do this without this array.

        • You are right about the need the rolling landing to avoid dumping ordance and the array is vital to complete this safely in any kind of sea.

          However, the array is not necessary for vertical landing indeed the array is probably not even visible to an aircraft moving sideways over the flight deck to complete a vertical landing.

          Cheers CR

  5. I see that since I pointed out the PoW ships badge was a version of the English Cross of St George, they have altered the badge as per above photo to show the Prince of Wales feathers only!!
    God Bless the Prince of Wales. Meanwhile the Queen Elizabeth’s badge remains in the colours of, er..Wales!

    • The official badge is still the ‘correct’ one. They use the version in the photo for the funnel badge – it’s normal to have a slight variaton there. 😉

      Agree about the timing though!

  6. I still think that they should have equipped both carriers with cats and traps , It would have made the Carriers available to other NATO carrier based aircraft for joint ops.

    • No it wouldn’t unless there was commonality in spares, weapons, operating procedures etc.

      As it is the carriers are available to all other Allied nations that have the F35B, which outnumbers the number of nations with cat & trap capable aircraft.

      • Good response Sean. The Cats and Traps comments are very tiresome. The Bs give inter-operability with the US Marines. What countries have more flat tops than the US Marines?

        • Not only interoperability, it’s also being able to sustain the capability, keeping training current etc. VSTOL is much easier and enables the joint force with RAF, increasing the size of airgroup available for the carriers.

          UK does not have the resources to operate CATOBAR on a sustainable basis. You only have to look at France to see where we would likely be if we tried.

          • Common sense response. Whatever the other logic it’s about timing too. If we had gone that way we would have to have gone steam catapult route or have further delays to the ships entry to service and the horrendous budget issues. The US is only just about getting F35C aircraft onto their carriers despite all their extra budget and enormous efforts and experience, while the emals system and the electronic traps are still not free of serious problems. So where would that leave us? So either a system becoming rapidly obsolete or a system far from action ready which ironically could have left us requiring F35b versions flying off a non ski jump carrier for years to come with all the cost, inefficiency, lack of effectiveness and downright humiliation that would result in. Oh and meanwhile all that lovely space below the flight deck left available for other uses presently lost.

    • You mean like USMC, the Italian Navy, and the Spanish Navy?
      And wider afield the Japanese MSDF, the Korean Navy, Singapore?

    • F-35C would Not have been fully operational until 2023. So still carriers without aircraft! And No CSG2021!

    • If I’m 5’11” and 18 years old, and my sister is 5’5″ and 21 years old, I still call her my big sister.

    • I wouldn’t expect a definitive number until SDSR 2025. By that stage Vixen and Mosquito UCAV’s will be well along the development path and Tempest (or alternative manned strike fighter) will be selected and ordered for post 2030 service introduction.

      Only with the manned / unmanned mix, clearly defined, can the government work out the necessary F35B fleet.

    • I suspect they will continue with small batch orders. They are currently only committed to 2 front line squadrons, but by 2025 and draw down of batch 1 Typhoon, I think they will need to announce squadrons 3 and 4 within the next couple of years – the required surge of deliveries will be required

  13. It seems that Prince of Wales is being deployed of the Cornwall coast for G7.
    Good coverage of her on Tv News tonight with Apaches on deck but no F35s

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