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HMS Queen Elizabeth is Britain’s biggest ever warship. It took nine years to build her at a cost of £3.5 billion.

Nearly 1,500 sailors, marines and aviators are about to leave on their first transatlantic crossing – a make-or-break four-month deployment on the high seas. This is to forge the new ship’s company into an effective fighting force, and their main mission is to test the top-secret F-35B Lightning Stealth Fighter – the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world that will give the ship its lethal sting.

As she leaves her home port of Portsmouth, tens of thousands turn out to bid HMS Queen Elizabeth farewell, but as she heads over the horizon, no-one has any idea what lies ahead. Within hours a Russian warship is detected, and the British ship needs to take immediate evasive action. Later, in mid-ocean, the ship’s company has to deal with floods and dangerous fuel leaks but eventually the Queen Elizabeth glides majestically in to Mayport Naval Station in Florida, USA. Over a thousand British sailors flood ashore taking the local bars by storm and the police by surprise.

Eventually the ship returns to sea for her most challenging mission to date - to land an F35B Lightning Stealth Fighter on her flight deck for the first time. It is a highly risky operation. Will it go to plan?