As part of the deployment of the British aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales in the Pacific Ocean, stealth F-35B fighters from the United States Marine Corps (USMC) conducted naval aviation operations from its flight deck. During a technical stop, the aircraft carried out landings, refueling, and takeoffs in a maneuver that strengthened interoperability between British and American forces in the Indo-Pacific maritime environment.
These maneuvers are part of the preparations for Talisman Sabre 2025 (TS25), the eleventh edition of Australia’s largest joint military exercise, designed in cooperation with the United States. This edition involves 19 partner countries and incorporates combined operations across multiple domains: land, air, sea, cyber, and space. Activities include amphibious landings, live-fire exercises, large-scale ground maneuvers, and coordinated air and maritime operations, using both military and civilian facilities to simulate a complex, multidimensional conflict scenario in the region.
The participation of USMC F-35Bs aboard HMS Prince of Wales also marks a turning point within Operation Highmast, the British carrier’s main deployment for 2025. This eight-month mission is part of the UK’s plan to strengthen military cooperation with regional partners in the Indo-Pacific. In that context, the arrival of the UK Carrier Strike Group (UKCSG) in Singapore at the end of June marked the beginning of a series of operational and diplomatic port calls in Southeast Asia, consolidating the global projection of British naval power beyond the Euro-Atlantic sphere.
The currently deployed UKCSG includes HMS Prince of Wales, the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless (D33), the Type 23 frigate HMS Richmond (F239), and the logistics ship RFA Tidespring (A136). These units are joined by allied ships such as HNoMS Roald Amundsen (Norway), the Halifax-class frigate HMCS Ville de Québec (FFH 332, Canada), and the Álvaro de Bazán-class frigate Méndez Núñez (F-104, Spain), operating in a distributed manner across Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia.
As part of this deployment, the United Kingdom seeks to reach Full Operating Capability (FOC) for its embarked Carrier Strike Group (UKCSG) during its transit through the Indo-Pacific. This objective represents a milestone in the operational validation process of HMS Prince of Wales and its components, by integrating allied capabilities in realistic and high-demand training scenarios.
The most immediate precedent of this bilateral cooperation dates back to late 2023, when USMC F-35Bs conducted an intensive testing cycle aboard HMS Prince of Wales while the carrier operated off the east coast of the United States. On that occasion, the fighters performed missions under the so-called “beast mode” configuration, which consists of loading up to 10,000 kilograms of air-to-air and air-to-surface weaponry to maximize the aircraft’s offensive potential in high-demand combat environments.
During those tests, more than 150 takeoffs were recorded from the carrier’s deck, as part of a joint operational evaluation campaign that also included unmanned systems and rotary-wing aircraft such as the MV-22 Osprey. The activities were conducted by two F-35Bs from the Patuxent River Integrated Test Force (PAX ITF), a unit that had already operated with HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2018, thus consolidating a history of integration with British naval platforms.
You may also like: Finally, the Royal Air Force began repairs on the F-35B fighter stranded for almost a month in India
