Atlantic Ocean. (October 29, 2023): In this photo Kyra Helwick, Sailors from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 and British Navy sailors load ordnance onto a F-35B Lightning II during flight training aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.

The squadron is collaborating with British sailors conducting flight trials of the F-35B Stealth, a short take-off, vertical landing version of the multirole fighter. The test squadron consists of forty officers and ninety enlisted drawn from the Navy and Marines along with 340 civilian contractors. Their mission is to evaluate fixed wing tactical aircraft and all manner of new Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. The Squadron provides aircraft, pilots, and maintenance services to do these evaluations anywhere in the world.

The Prince of Wales, unlike most carriers, is not fitted with catapults to launch its aircraft and is instead designed to field the fifth-generation short take-off/runway version of the stealthy F35B. This single-seat, single-engine, all-weather fighter is used for both air superiority and strike missions. The Prince of Wales also deploys Merlin helicopters for airborne early warning and anti-submarine warfare. Currently there are fourteen aircraft carriers that operate these vertical take-off aircraft including the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain.