The aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth departs from her naval base in Portsmouth, England, Sept. 21, 2020.
The British Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group will travel through the South China Sea in May, when the Queen will make her first port of call in Japan and will conduct joint exercises with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces. As for the date and port of call, the two countries have yet to negotiate.
The Sankei Shimbun reports that the British government will soon officially announce that HMS Queen Elizabeth will travel to Japan.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth strike group’s cruise to the Indo-Pacific is part of Britain’s foreign defense policy, and is intended to keep the Chinese Communist Party in check as it strengthens its bid for maritime hegemony.
HMS Queen Elizabeth, built at a cost of £3 billion, is the largest ship ever built by the British Navy and can carry 70 aircraft, including the F-35B, the most advanced stowaway aircraft, which can perform short taxi takeoffs and vertical landings.
The Japanese Self-Defense Force has also bought the F-35B and is planning to transform the helicopter frigates Izumo and Kaga into light aircraft carriers, and the Japan-UK joint military exercises are expected to improve the cooperation and use between them.
A British Air Force Voyager aircraft refueling a U.S. Marine Corps F-35B on Oct. 8, 2020.
Two F-35Bs from the U.S. Marine Corps refuel from a British Air Force Voyager aircraft over the North Sea and fly over Scotland, Oct. 8, 2020.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier strike group sailed through the South China Sea in May and that the voyage would be focused on a freedom of navigation mission. But on the last leg to Japan, it will not pass through the Taiwan Strait, but from the east, so as not to anger the Chinese Communist Party on its maiden voyage, surprising the British political circles.
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