Her first NATO (and national) mission - one of many. Peace through strength.
The value of a larger ship and a larger deck is obvious from this picture.
Look at the way it lands so smoothly compared with Sea Harrier and Harrier GR7/9. In
Sea Harrier Over The Falklands, Sharkey Ward said he hoped that the successor to the Sea Harrier would be easier to land. Well - here it is, with fifth generation avionics and LO. Both air defence (controlled by a shipborne Freddy) and attack have been part of this exercise.
In future the number of F-35B (are we officially calling it the Lightning?) will increase, operated by the joint RN/RAF force (recent window licking over this has been seen - from Peter 'Ignore The Science' Hitchens, and with be supported by Crowsnest. The air to air capability will hopefully be enhanced by Meteor. With The US looking to build light fleet carriers based on the
America class LHD, so maybe it will be getting some sort of anti ship weapon integrated?
However, it is not all about the jets.
The Pingers contribute to task group ASW capabilities and work with the frigates and their helicopters, and the Junglies do their stuff. The Junglies can relieve the Pingers of much SAR/VERTREP/HDS tasking. Co-ordinated ASW was part of this exercise.