5300 Amercian Sailors In Portsmouth

The world's newest and most powerful surface ship arrives in the Solent this weekend - after playing war games with the Royal Navy.

The United States Navy's USS George H W Bush will be anchored off Stokes Bay on her maiden deployment, fresh from exercising in the UK's Western Approaches with HMS Dauntless and Gloucester.

Exercise Saxon Warrior is one of the largest war games hosted by the Royal Navy in UK waters in recent years with other NATO forces, plus RAF and British Army units.

The 97,000-ton Bush carries in excess of 70 aircraft from eight squadrons and 5,300 sailors and aircrew.

The 1,100ft nuclear-powered supercarrier - commissioned at the beginning of 2009 - is too large to enter Portsmouth Harbour so will drop anchor in the sheltered waters of Stokes Bay. She's due to arrive on Friday at 7am and depart the following Tuesday at 10am.

Two other foreign vessels from the exercise - the destroyer USS Truxtun and the Spanish frigate ESPS Almirante Juan De Borbon - will spend the weekend in Portsmouth Naval Base.