RAF Typhoon aircraft have carried out a training sortie with F-35 Lightning and a US B-1B Lancer bomber over the North Sea.
The US B-1B bomber was conducting a long-range nonstop training sortie from the United States to mainland Europe and back. During the flight, the Typhoons and the F-35s were part of coordinated intercepts, escort and rolling handovers of the US Bomber Task Force (BTF) mission on its return transit. They escorted the US bomber over the North Sea, as it conducted Air to Air refuelling prior to its return to the US across the Atlantic.
"Exercises like this are vital for the training of F35- pilots, engineers and everyone involved onboard the aircraft carrier, as they represent a very realistic demand to scramble our aircraft with only minutes notice. They also serve as a demonstration of just how quickly UK Armed Forces can react in the event of such an incident."
Commodore Blackmore
Commander UK Carrier Strike Group
Commodore Blackmore said, "From our perspective onboard HMS Prince of Wales, it shows the flexibility that carrier strike capability brings to UK and allied defence. We are able to act as a mobile airfield, moving up to 500 miles per day, being placed wherever required to launch our jets at any time of day or night to carry out intercepts such as these. For this particular exercise, it was a welcome opportunity to work directly alongside our colleagues based at UK airbases as our Carrier Strike Group transits North to continue with Exercise Steadfast Defender, the largest NATO exercise for decades."
This training sortie was part of regular training activities by the RAF with the US Air Force and our NATO Allies, and part of the routine deployment of US BTF aircraft to Europe. It included integration and interoperability training with QRA assets from six out of ten JEF participant nations (PN): Denmark, Finland, UK, Norway, Netherlands, and Sweden, with ISTAR and Search and Rescue (SAR) also provided by JEF PN, Iceland.
