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

• Japan’s aircraft carrier JS Kaga completed sea trials off the California coast Friday.
• The light aircraft carrier was refitted with a flight deck to carry 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 carrier just completed sea trials off the coast of California on Friday, the country’s navy said.

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