Drones built in Wiltshire have flown from the flight deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth in the first strike drone launches the Royal Navy has carried out from an aircraft carrier.

The mid-October trials in the North Atlantic saw British-made Nyan Maritime one-way drones, manufactured by Callen-Lenz, take off from the carrier.

The flights demonstrated how autonomous strike systems could operate alongside F-35B stealth jets.

The Royal Navy worked with experts from across the Armed Forces and industry to conduct a number of flights from the ship.

The drone had already been launched at sea for the first time from the experimentation ship XV Patrick Blackett earlier this year.

The Royal Navy has successfully launched strike drones from an aircraft carrier for the first time (MoD)

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting said: “The threat environment we are facing is fundamentally different from that of recent decades.…