PACIFIC OCEAN - United Kingdom Left Lt. Mike McMahon,

PACIFIC OCEAN - United Kingdom Left Lt. Mike McMahon, a Royal Navy flight deck officer for the HMS Prince of Wales, one of the UK’s new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, launches an F-35B from US Marine Fighter Attack Detachment 211, 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Royal Navy personnel embarked in the US Navy Wasp-class amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) to observe and familiarize themselves with F-35B Lightning II flight operations. The Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class carrier will be the first of its kind to carry the F-35. “This has been an excellent opportunity to observe Amphibious Squadron One while underway during their Western Pacific deployment,” said UK Cmdr. Mark Deller, the former HMS Queen Elizabeth air boss. “In particular, it’s been a great opportunity to take a much closer look at the US Marine Corps’ F-35B operations and procedural development of conducting embarked activity since we last viewed it in operational testing 1 aboard the USS Wasp 2015.” The US Essex Amphibious Ready Group and US 13th MEU are the first continental US Navy, Marine Corps team to deploy with the F-35B. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Francisco J. Diaz Jr.)