Fighter jets embarked on the HMS Queen Elizabeth have completed strike training missions that move the UK a step closer to the carrier's operational deployment due next year. The Royal Navy's newest flagship recently returned to Portsmouth after a successful two-week cruise with the largest group of fifth generation F-35B Lightning fighters ever put to sea, courtesy of the US Marine Corp's VMFA-211 and the UK's 617 Squadron 'The Dambusters'. What a difference a decade makes. Turn back the clock to December 3, 2010 and the HMS Ark Royal was sailing into Portsmouth for the final time. That year's Strategic Defence and Security Review had wielded an axe across the bow of the UK's only aircraft carrier, forcing its retirement as defence budgets were slashed. This period marked one of the lowest points in the Royal Navy's recent history, leaving the nation with no capability to launch fixed-wing aircraft at sea as the Harrier was culled. In one governmental blow relations were soured between the air force and navy.
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