Thread: UK's last Invincible class carrier de-commissioned

They have had this going for a while. There was a 'public' demand that the Ark Royal be preserved however both it and Invincible were sold off for scrap as the £3m offered for each was too much for a cash strapped government to pass up.

They have been seeking offers for 12 months now for Illustrious without anyone coming forward. Portsmouth Naval Museum would seem the obvious choice however it is said they turned it down as price was too high and it was not historic enough.

If papers are to be believed Royal Navy has 40 Admirals, 260 Captains and 19 ships.

Originally Posted by 3toes

They have had this going for a while. There was a 'public' demand that the Ark Royal be preserved however both it and Invincible were sold off for scrap as the £3m offered for each was too much for a cash strapped government to pass up.

They have been seeking offers for 12 months now for Illustrious without anyone coming forward. Portsmouth Naval Museum would seem the obvious choice however it is said they turned it down as price was too high and it was not historic enough.

If papers are to be believed Royal Navy has 40 Admirals, 260 Captains and 19 ships.

90 ships, 13 are freight ships on an agreement. Along with another dozen or so landing vessels, some are tiny, others ship size.
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Have to agree that they are not learning from past mistakes as having no aircraft carrier available since they retired the harriers , and not having one till 2018 is a bit wishful! Hoping Argentina behaves, Middle East settles down and other places don't flare up for 4 more years.

Plus, 4 new RFA, ships, plus 4 new OPV's, plus 6 more subs, plus the new Frigates. Its not all bad...

It's not all bad???,they have a brand new state of the art carrier but not a single plane to fly off it. Pat

They were quite a step up from the Majestic class carriers,shame Australia missed out on them in the 80's.The loss of fixed wing naval aviation has been sorely missed.

that article woke my mem's, thankyou. the illustrious was my last sea going draft in the mob, the final being a shore commcen. I was on the intrepid when I saw a swap draft in the navy news, a married guy didn't want the 9 month world tour. I took it but we blew a gearbox doing speed trials south of isle of wight, towed back into pompey the next morning, 3 months of repairs and we caught them up later. someone recently mentioned a sales tour for the RN in 86, that was true, we were told on board it was the reason for the trip.

I also done time on the bulwark and hermes (and a few other tubs), they were much nicer, had class. didn't like the newer vessels, tinny, lousy comms and little defence, we found that out down south with the argies. story for another day..

ave a nice weekend.