UK Launches First Carrier-Based F-35 Strikes Against Islamic State - US CENTCOM

UK Launches First Carrier-Based F-35 Strikes Against Islamic State - US CENTCOM

The United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier launched the vessel's first combat sorties with F-35 fighter jets targeting the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) in support of the American-led Operation Inherent Resolve, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Tuesday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd June, 2021) The United Kingdom's Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier launched the vessel's first combat sorties with F-35 fighter jets targeting the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia) in support of the American-led Operation Inherent Resolve, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Tuesday.

"HMS Queen Elizabeth's first missions against Daesh [ISIS] will be remembered as a significant moment in the 50-year lifespan of this ship," UK Carrier Strike Group 21 Commander, Commodore Steve Moorhouse said in the release. "Now we are ready to deliver the hard punch of maritime-based air power against a shared enemy.

The strike group includes 18 fifth-generation F-35 Lightning jets, the largest concentration of maritime and air power to leave the UK in a generation and the strike group's first operational deployment, the release said.

Sorties from the Queen Elizabeth also mark the first combat mission flown by US-made aircraft from a foreign aircraft carrier since the UK Carrier Victorious in the South Pacific in 1943, according to the release.