US, UK fighter jets engage in joint anti-ISIS strike missions

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• British authorities confirmed that the UK and the US F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters conducted anti-ISIS strike missions from the UK Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth.
• The joint aerial operations began on June 18 in an undisclosed location.
• It marked the first that the UK engaged in a joint military intervention since 2011.

For the first time in the UK over a decade, defense authorities confirmed to USNI News on Tuesday that the British and American F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters engaged in aerial anti-ISIS strike missions boarding the UK Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08).

In a statement on Tuesday, the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) said that the F-35s of the Number 617 Squadron military unit, “The Dambusters,” were launched in support of Operation Shader, an anti-ISIS effort and US Operation Inherent Resolve.

A service official also told USNI News that the “Wake Island Avengers” of the US Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 211 have also participated in the strike missions.

“The involvement of HMS Queen Elizabeth and her air wing in this campaign also sends a wider message. It demonstrates the speed and agility with which a U.K.-led Carrier Strike Group can inject fifth generation combat power into any operation, anywhere in the world, thereby offering the British government, and our allies, true military and political choice,” U.K. Carrier Strike Group commander Commodore Steve Moorhouse said in a statement.

The specific targets or mission locations, though, were not disclosed by the officials. The Marines just noted that the joint air wing began its combat operations on June 18, in a statement on Tuesday.

“U.S. Marine Corps aircraft supporting OIR from a Royal Navy aircraft carrier demonstrates how effectively interoperable our combined naval forces are,” Marine Corps Col. Simon Doran said, the US representative to the UK CSG.

BBC reported that since 2019, Royal Air Force F-35Bs stationed in Cyprus have been conducting anti-ISIS operations across Syria and Iraq.

“The Lightning force is once again in action against Daesh, this time flying from an aircraft carrier at sea, which marks the Royal Navy’s return to maritime strike operations for the first time since the Libya campaign a decade ago,” said air wing commander Royal Navy Capt. James Blackmore on Tuesday.

On May 22, the Queen Elizabeth Carrier Strike Group sailed from the UK in preparation for the combat operations. The ship carried eight RAF F-35Bs and 10 Marine F-35s for a 28-week deployment across the Mediterranean Sea and the Indo-Pacific.

The Royal Navy also brought in escorts including Type 45 destroyers HMS Defender and HMS Diamond, Type 23 anti-submarine frigates HMS Kent and HMS Richmond, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s RFA Fort Victoria and RFA Tidespring, and an unidentified nuclear attack boat.

The UK’s latest combat mission becomes the first carrier strike operation from a British carrier since Operation Ellamy in 2011, where Britain participated in a global military intervention in Libya. The operation also marked the first time that American fighters boarded from a British aircraft carrier since 1943, as noted by the MOD.

Source: USNI News