HMS Queen Elizabeth leaves Portsmouth for maiden deployment
Video report by ITV Meridian reporter Richard Slee
HMS Queen Elizabeth has set sail from Portsmouth for her maiden deployment to Japan and the Pacific Ocean.
The £3bn aircraft carrier is heading up the biggest group of warships since the 1980s.
The 700 crew on board will visit more than a fifth of the world's nations.
The F35s will be among 30 aircraft across the task group, which includes HMS Diamond and HMS Defender as well as the Frigates HMS Richmond and HMS Kent.
Over the next six months HMS Queen Elizabeth with visit forty counties and travel 26,000 miles arriving home in time for Christmas.
The carrier strike group deployment is the first operational deployment by a Royal Navy aircraft carrier for more than a decade, and will take in visits to 40 countries as it makes its way through the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and into the Pacific to return home around seven months later.