Royal Navy flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth sets sail from Portsmouth

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth has set sail for her latest deployment from Portsmouth on Friday evening.

The warship, which is equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and communications systems, set sail from Portsmouth Naval Base to the Norwegian and North Seas to lead a Carrier Strike Group.

HMS Queen Elizabeth, which is the flagship of the Royal Navy, will lead a carrier group for the fourth time in the last four years.

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A Carrier Strike Group is a collection of ships that escort aircraft carriers.

HMS Queen Elizabeth has welcomed additional personnel onboard for the deployment, including members of the 847 Naval Air Squadron who will call the ship home over the coming months.

The squadron provides reconnaissance and air support with its Wildcat helicopter.

Captain Will King, Commanding Officer of HMS Queen Eizabeth, told Forces News: "We're super excited as you can imagine. Clearly a career highlight for any naval officer to take a ship like this to sea.

"I've got a ship's company of about 750 absolutely superb sailors at every level. For the Navy, we're very fortunate in that we, as routine business, work across from our allies and partners quite regularly.

"For this one we'll be basing ourselves out on the Norwegian Sea, working alongside our Norwegian, Finnish, German, French and US Aviation Support as well. All of those Nato countries will be with us. It will be a demonstration of the high-end capability we've got."