Striking images show the F-35 jump-jet’s first trials on a newly converted Japanese aircraft carrier

• Japan’s aircraft porter JS Kaga completed sea trials off the California coast Friday.
• The light aircraft carrier was refitted with a flight deck to execute F-35B stealth fighters.
• The destroyer-turned-flattop is the first carrier to be operated by Japan since World War II.

Japan’s destroyer-turned-aircraft haulier just completed sea trials off the coast of California on Friday, the country’s navy said.

The JS Kaga was refitted with a departure deck that allowed crews “to conduct fixed-wing aircraft operations,” the US Defense Department said in a statement survive month.

The Kaga is the first aircraft carrier to be operated by the Japanese navy since World War II as the country overhauls its maritime arm-twistings amid tensions in the Indo-Pacific. Central to the light carrier’s power is the short take-off and landing version of the F-35 stealth fighter.