HMS Prince Of Wales Ready For Latest Round Of F-35 Developmental Testing

LONDON—The UK’s newest aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, has set sail for the U.S. East Coast ahead of long-awaited and delayed flight trials with the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The 65,000-ton carrier is to embark several F-35s later this month for the third round of development testing (DT-3) with the aircraft. This is set to broaden the envelope of flight operations from the ships, including the use of the ship-rolling vertical landing capability—which will boost the aircraft’s payload bring-back functionality—as well as operate the fighter jets in heavier seas.

Originally set to conduct the flight trials a year ago, the Prince of Wales incurred damage to one of its two propeller shafts while en route to the U.S. The ship was forced into dry dock at Rosyth in Scotland for repairs, which were finally completed in July 2023.

The F-35 flight trials are part of a wider schedule of testing for the ship, which the UK Royal Navy says will “revolutionize” the way the service operates its carrier strike groups (CSG).

While operating in the English Channel, the ship is due to conduct flight trials with an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) provided by UK firm W Autonomous Systems to assess how a fixed-wing UAS could deliver supplies of up to 220 lb. (100 kg) to ships at sea, reducing the need to fly helicopters.

Once in U.S. waters, the Prince of Wales will also embark MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors as part of trials to expand their ship operating limits from the carrier. This could pave the way for the tiltrotors to operate from the ship’ flight deck in its debut international deployment planned for 2025.

The aircraft carrier is also set to embark General Atomics’ Mojave medium-altitude, long-endurance UAS to ascertain whether the system can be operated from the flight deck.

The Mojave trial plan followed the signing last spring of a £1.5 million ($1.9 million) contract with General Atomics to provide the Mojave aircraft, a derivative of the company’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle designed for short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) operations.

“My team are really excited to tackle the final phase of testing, which will expand the F-35’s awesome capabilities even more, and to be the first to land and launch new types of drones on our deck,” said Royal Navy Cmdr. Martin Russell, who leads the Prince of Wales’ air group and flight deck operation.

The F-35 flight trials onboard the Prince of Wales come five years after the fighter jets made their first landing on the aircraft carrier’s sister ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth. The F-35s were launched on operational missions during the first CSG deployment in 2021.