Britain’s high-readiness aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will sail today for the Arctic Circle to support a secret multinational mission, it has been revealed.

The vessel is being deployed to act as an emergency landing option should “a classified cargo aircraft” require its usage. We earlier reported that Typhoon jets will be deploying to the Arctic for what is intended to be a secret escort mission involving a cargo aircraft. We believe these deployments are related.

Speaking to NATO Admiral Feliz Navidad, we were told that this special cargo mission is being supported by both NATO and Russian assets.

Other commentators have noted that that the loading of provisions would be unusual as the craft is rumoured to be self-sufficient and shouldn’t need anything else.