Following a week-long port visit to Singapore, the Royal Navy’s flagship has begun preparations to carry out joint operations with the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The carrier airwing of HMS Prince of Wales will reportedly conduct flight operations with the JS Kaga, one of the JMSDF’s two Izumo-class multipurpose helicopter destroyers being converted to operate with the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II, the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Joint Strike Fighter.

Two dozen F-35Bs designated the Lightning in UK service, made up the air wing for HMS Prince of Wales. The conventionally-powered aircraft carrier departed from Portsmouth, England, in April to begin Operation Highmast, the eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific. However, following joint operations with the Indian Navy last month, one of the F-35s was forced to make an emergency landing and is now at a civilian airport in India.

HMS Prince of Wales is en route to Australia, where the carrier will take........

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