AIRCRAFT from the Royal Air Force, United States Marine Corps, the United States Air Force and the Royal Netherlands Air Force have been conducting large scale exercises over the North Sea.

The exercise known as Exercise Point Blank is a regular quarterly exercise conducted by the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force based in the UK, but for this exercise both RAF and USMC F-35Bs are taking part as the first step in their work up training ready to deploy on HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force has sent their F-35As and also two USAF F-16 squadrons based in Italy have taken part plus US B. The gathering of so many aircraft allows large-scale training missions to be conducted.

The exercise is the first that the recently arrived USMC Squadron has carried out following their arrival in the UK at RAF Marham and follows a period of isolation as a precautionary measure to combat Covid-19.

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