Rusty Lusty: Former HMS Illustrious Carved Up At Scrapyard

Pictures have emerged of the former Royal Navy flagship HMS Illustrious being cut up at a Turkish scrapyard.

Illustrious was the last of the Invincible-class aircraft carriers, that also included HMS Ark Royal and HMS Invincible, which were introduced in the 1980s.

Illustrious was rushed into service early and deployed to the Falklands during the war there in 1982. It replaced HMS Invincible in providing a platform for aircraft unable to use the islands’ damaged RAF base.  

‘Lusty’, as the vessel became known, went on to serve in the conflicts in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Sierra Leone.

The 22,000-ton carrier was decommissioned in 2014 after 32 years of service.

At the time, the Ministry of Defence said it was looking at plans to preserve it, but schemes to save it for the nation as a floating museum, or attraction fell through.

On the 7th December 2016 'Lusty' set sail from Portsmouth for the final time to Turkey to be scrapped.