US F-35 completes first shipborne rolling vertical landing on HMS Prince of Wales

A US F-35 Lightning II jet has completed the first shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL) on HMS Prince of Wales.

The SRVL sees an aircraft land on the carrier after approaching the ship from behind at speed, before using thrust from the aircraft's nozzle and lift created by air over the wings to touch down and gently come to a stop

Until now, F-35 jets have only landed on the ship vertically, which sees them hovering by the side of the £3bn carrier before moving sideways and lowering onto the flight deck.

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An SRVL sees the jets make a more conventional landing approach, closer to what would be seen on land, and allows the F-35 pilots to land on board the aircraft carrier with heavier loads.

The Royal Navy carrier posted footage of the landing on the flight deck on X, formerly known as Twitter.

HMS Prince of Wales is currently training with US jets off America's east coast.

The ship shared a video of an F-35 being armed with missiles and taking off to drop weapons in the Atlantic as part of Westlant 23.

The trials with F-35 jets had to be delayed after the carrier broke down near the Isle of Wight after leaving Portsmouth to deploy to the US.

HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Prince of Wales' sister ship, completed her first SRVL in October 2018.