THESE heartwarming images show the moment kids welcomed home our sailors as the HMS Queen Elizabeth returned from the US.

Excited families waved to Royal Navy members as the £3billion Big Lizze pulled into Portsmouth for the first time after three months away.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth's escorts, the HMS Northumberland and RFA Tideforce, also returned to Plymouth today.

Servicemen and women were seen embracing their children after being apart since August.

The heartwarming scenes show excited sailors ecstatically waving to their loved ones from the ships as families held up signs welcoming our brave Royal Navy members home.

The Royal Navy's largest ever warship and its carrier strike group sailed to the US to carry the flight tests involving British jets for the first time.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth arrived at the Hampshire port after its deployment to test flights of its F-35B Lightning jets.

The 65,000-tonne warship manoeuvred into place alongside its sister ship.

The HMS Prince of Wales arrived in Portsmouth for the first time last month and will be commissioned later this month by the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

Commodore Steve Moorhouse, commanding officer of Queen Elizabeth, said: "Homecomings are always a special occasion, but to be returning to Portsmouth, with HMS Prince of Wales welcoming us home makes this a particularly special occasion.

Two sailors wave from the HMS Northumberland

HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH IN NUMBERS

• Top speed – 25 knots up
• Length – 920ft
• Weight – 65,000 tonnes
• Food on board – 45 days worth
• Pipes – more than one millon inside the ship
• Flight deck size – 230ft by 920ft – the equivalent of three football pitches
• Man power – 28 million hours spent designing and building the carrier
• Parts – 17 million

"This has been an extremely successful deployment for HMS Queen Elizabeth.

"Embarking UK F-35B Lightning for the first time and integrating them within the carrier strike group is a significant milestone and we are well set for an equally demanding 2020 and our first operational deployment in 2021."

Captain James Blackmore, commander of the air group for the UK carrier strike group, said: "The five-week period of Operational Tests with UK F-35Bs from the UK Lightning force was significant and historic.

"As the last pilot to fly Harrier from the deck of HMS Ark Royal in 2010, it filled me with tremendous pride to see UK fixed-wing aircraft operate once more from a British carrier."

Big Lizzie's first fully operational deployment is planned for 2021.

It will include the embarkation of both UK and US marines with support provided by a second destroyer, frigate and nuclear submarine.

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