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U.S. Department of Defense
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J.
Austin III spoke by phone this morning with U.K.
Secretary of State for Defense Ben Wallace and reaffirmed the importance of the special relationship between our two countries.
The secretaries discussed views on confronting strategic issues of mutual interest, including the COVID-19 response, concerns from a rising China, threats from Russia, and ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Secretary Austin congratulated the U.K.
for the recent announcement of its largest increase in defense spending in thirty years, noting the importance of that spending to our shared security and the collective security of the NATO Alliance.
By Garrett Reim2021-01-21T00:26:00+00:00
The US Marine Corps (USMC) has committed a detachment of Lockheed Martin F-35Bs to the UK Royal Navy’s HMS
Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier for its first overseas deployment this year.
Former acting secretary of defence Christopher Miller and UK secretary of state for defence Ben Wallace co-signed the Joint Declaration for the Carrier Strike Group 2021 deployment on 19 January. Miller stepped down on 20 January after recently inaugurated President Joe Biden replaced him with acting secretary of defence David Norquist.
Source: Crown Copyright
Queen Elizabeth
The agreement commits an undisclosed number of F-35B short take-off and vertical landing aircraft, US Navy (USN) personnel and equipment and the USS