Asked by: Lord Hart of Tenby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what jets are being used on HMS Queen Elizabeth until the F-35 comes into service.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH is currently undergoing a planned engineering period in Portsmouth, before returning to sea trials; she is not yet a fully operational platform.
The Ministry of Defence has no plans to operate any jet aircraft from HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH other than the F-35B Lightning II, for which the Queen Elizabeth Class carriers have been specifically designed. We have taken delivery of 12 F-35B jets so far, and will have 14 by the end of the year.
We plan to conduct first-of-class flying trials with F-35B in autumn 2018, as part of the programme to deliver an initial Carrier Strike capability by the end of 2020.