HMS Illustrious (R06)
HMS Illustrious in 2006
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Illustrious |
| Ordered: | 14 May 1976 |
| Builder: | Swan Hunter, Tyne and Wear, United Kingdom |
| Laid down: | 7 October 1976 |
| Launched: | 14 December 1978 |
| Sponsored by: | Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon |
| Commissioned: | 20 June 1982 |
| Decommissioned: | 28 August 2014 |
| Refit: | First Major 1990s, Second Major 2003-2005, Third Major 2010-2012 |
| Homeport: | HMNB Portsmouth |
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| Nickname(s): | "Lusty" |
| Fate: | Sold for scrap |
| Badge: |  |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Invincible-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 22,000 tonnes |
| Length: | 210m |
| Beam: | 118 ft (36 m) |
| Draught: | 25 ft (7.6 m) |
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| Speed: | over 30 kn (56 km/h; 35 mph), 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph) cruising |
| Range: | 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
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| Notes: | SDSR stated that it is possible that Harrier Jump Jets from other countries could operate on HMS Illustrious. |
HMS Illustrious was a light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and the second of three Invincible-class ships constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and was affectionately known to her crew as "Lusty". In 1982, the conflict in the Falklands necessitated that Illustrious be completed and rushed south to join her sister ship HMS Invincible and the veteran carrier HMS Hermes. To this end, she was brought forward by three months for completion at Swan Hunter Shipyard, then commissioned on 20 June 1982 at sea en-route to Portsmouth Dockyard to take on board extra stores and crew. She arrived in the Falklands to relieve Invincible on 28 August 1982 in a steam past. Returning to the United Kingdom, she was not formally commissioned into the fleet until 20 March 1983. After the Falklands War, she was deployed on Operation Southern Watch in Iraq, then Operation Deny Flight in Bosnia during the 1990s and Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone in 2000. An extensive re-fit during 2002 prevented her from involvement in the 2003 Iraq War, but she was repaired in time to assist British citizens trapped by the 2006 Lebanon War.
Following the retirement of her fixed-wing British Aerospace Harrier II aircraft in 2010, Illustrious operated as one of two Royal Navy helicopter carriers. After 32 years' service, the oldest ship in the Royal Navy's active fleet was formally decommissioned on 28 August 2014 even though she would not be replaced until HMS Queen Elizabeth's commissioning in 2017. Despite the UK Ministry of Defence's announcement in 2012 that, once decommissioned, Illustrious would be preserved for the nation, in 2016 she was sold and towed to Turkey for scrapping.
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