Tri-Service
HMS Illustrious Sold For Scrap Despite Promises
Britain has sold its last surviving Invincible Class aircraft carrier to Turkey for scrap despite early promises she'd be saved for the nation.
HMS Illustrious has been ‘rusting’ away in Portsmouth dockyard since being decommissioned after 32 years of Royal Navy service.
For more than three decades, HMS Illustrious sailed all over the world. Affectionately known as Lusty, she was rushed into service in 1982, sailing down to the Falklands to relieve HMS Invincible in her first mission.
She went on to sail 900,000 nautical miles around the world in her 32-year career. Operations ranged from stabilisation in the aftermath of the first Gulf War, to Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone in 2000, to delivering humanitarian aid after a Typhoon devastated the Philippines in 2013.
She was originally built as a fixed-wing aircraft carrier, but Lusty was modified into a dedicated helicopter carrier after the Harrier jump-jet was withdrawn from service six years ago.
She was Britain's only working aircraft carrier when she returned home to Portsmouth for the last time in 2014.
What does the future hold for her now? HMS Illustrious is destined for the scrapyard.
Despite the MoD's efforts to save her as a museum ship for the nation, no bids could afford to save her. So she's been sold to a Turkish Ship Recycling company for £2 million.
She will leave her Portsmouth base in the autumn, making way for the new Elizabeth Class carriers which arrive in 2017.
Illustrious was the last of her kind. She follows her sister ships HMS Invincible and Ark Royal to the scrapyard, but her place in Britain's Royal Naval history is assured.
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