HMS Queen Elizabeth departs Portsmouth to begin an intensive period at sea

Fresh from her second planned docking period at Rosyth Royal Dockyard, HMS Queen Elizabeth has left HMNB Portsmouth to begin an intensive period at sea. 

Friends, family, and well-wishers lined Portsmouth Harbour to bid the 65,000-tonne flagship farewell as she slowly glided past.

The next phase of her deployment will see the carrier undertake a series of sea trials, preparing both her and her crew for an upcoming Nato exercise as part of the alliance's Allied Response Force. She will then undergo a planned maintenance period in June. 

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Before her departure, HMS Queen Elizabeth served as a staging platform for members of the Royal Navy's parachute display team, the Raiders.

Each parachutist leapt from a light aircraft at an altitude of between 11,000 and 13,000ft with brightly coloured smoke flares and flags attached to their legs for the journey back to earth.

Elsewhere, her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, recently departed Scotland alongside Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan and the tanker RFA Tidespring.

The task group is journeying to the Atlantic and High North and will operate alongside Nato allies and partners of the Joint Expeditionary Force as part of Exercise Tamber Shield.