HMS Illustrious (R06)
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The HMS Illustrious was the second of three aircraft carriers of the Invincible class . The ship was built by Swan Hunter Shipbuilders (Wallsend) and entered service with the British Royal Navy in 1982 . She was the fifth ship in the Royal Navy to be named HMS Illustrious .
history
When the Falklands War began, the Illustrious was still in the equipment. Their commissioning was accelerated due to the conflict in the South Atlantic. The Illustrious Phalanx was the first ship in the Royal Navy to receive CIWS - short-range defense systems , a finding from the Falklands War. Furthermore, she was the first ship to receive an early warning component since the old HMS Ark Royal was decommissioned on February 13, 1979 - the Sea King AEW.2 , converted from an anti-submarine helicopter.
Equipped in this way, the Illustrious set sail on August 2, 1982 and replaced her sister ship HMS Invincible on August 27. Until October 21, 1982, she ensured the air defense of the Falkland Islands with her nine Sea Harriers and the early warning Sea Kings . Then the Royal Air Force took over this task with Phantom fighters . After returning from the South Atlantic, the carrier resumed the usual test program, which had been severely neglected due to the Falklands War, and did not join the fleet again until May 1983.
In late 1983, after the HMS Hermes was transferred to the reserve, the Royal Navy reverted to keeping only two aircraft carriers in active service. For the Illustrious this meant fleet service until 1989, the year in which the Invincible was put back into service after two and a half years of interim modernization. The leadership of the Royal Navy intended a similar modernization for the Illustrious , but in 1989 the necessary budget was not available, so the ship was transferred to the reserve. The principle of two porters in active service and one in the major overhaul or on standby was thus fulfilled. The Illustrious remained in this state until 1991 . In the meantime, details of the planned modernization have become known, which should bring the ship to the INVINCIBLE-Plus level. Because in addition to the measures carried out on the sister ship, the Illustrious was to receive four quadruple starters Sea Wolf GWS 26 Mod2 (lightweight version) near and near-range missiles / anti-aircraft aircraft and two associated track systems. For financial reasons, this effective weapon system was abandoned shortly after the start of interim modernization. The most striking feature is the starboard extension of the flight deck in the bow area. Below that is a briefing room for 100 people.
On July 28, 1994, the Royal Navy put the Illustrious back into service, it performed tasks in the Adriatic Sea, in maneuvers, on trips abroad and in the Gulf. This also included the Ocean Wave '97 Far East trip , which was supposed to secure the handover of Hong Kong to China (1997).
In 1998 the porter moved again to the shipyard. In addition to routine repairs, their flight operations facilities were expanded. The space required for this was obtained by expanding the Sea Dart anti-aircraft aircraft system. In the hangar area, for example, the workshops and spare parts load could be expanded and redesigned to accommodate the RAF Harrier on a regular basis. Most obvious, however, was the expansion of the flight deck. By eliminating the sea dart starter, a considerable area could be gained there.
In 2000 the first real assignment came for the Illustrious . Together with a task force of the Royal Navy was to Sierra Leone dispatched to evacuate British nationals. However, when the fleet was there, the government in London decided to intervene directly in the civil war with legitimacy from the UN . Here the Illustrious served as a landing and command ship for the British soldiers.
On September 3, 2001, the Illustrious set out on a training trip to the Mediterranean, the Indic and the Gulf. When the attacks in New York and Washington took place on September 11th, she was first dispatched to the Gulf. Later she was converted into the command role, i.e. H. Handing over of their Harrier aircraft, taking on troop transport helicopters (mainly of the Sea King Mk4 type) and soldiers of the Royal Marines . She was then relocated to the Indian Ocean and was instrumental in the war in Afghanistan .
From the end of 2003 to August 2005 the ship was for modernization and conversion work in Rosyth, Scotland . With the new construction of the flight deck and hangar, the carrier was now able to carry up to 26 aircraft and helicopters, four more than before. The tonnage was increased from 20,600 to 22,000 tons. It is also the first aircraft carrier in the world to be equipped for the use of the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter . She took over on August 4, 2005, the role of the flagship of the Royal Navy from the Invincible , which had been decommissioned the day before. On July 15, 2006, due to the crisis between Israel and Lebanon , the aircraft carrier and five other warships were sent to the Middle East as part of Operation Highbrow to evacuate British citizens from Lebanon. In July 2007, graduated from the V-22 Osprey of the United States Marine Corps , the world's first landing of the aircraft type on a foreign warship aboard the Illustrious .
After the Harrier was decommissioned, the ship only served as a pure helicopter carrier. For this purpose, the Lusty was rebuilt again. After the installation of additional guidance facilities and space for the embarkation of 650 ground troops including the tailored air group (“Tailored Air Group”), the carrier was classified as LPH, “Landing Platform Helicopter” in its last years in service. The first mission after the conversion took the ship to Northern Norway in spring 2012, where the Royal Navy took part in the "Cold Response 2012" maneuver.
In the second half of 2013, the carrier and other British ships initially took part in exercises in the Middle East as part of a task group, from where he was sent to the areas of the Philippines destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan in November for humanitarian aid .
A fire broke out on the ship in early 2014. Experts then traveled to Aliaga, Turkey, to buy the required spare parts from the scrap dealer, who at the time scrapped the sister ship HMS Ark Royal .
The Lusty returned to Portsmouth on July 21, 2014 from her last voyage before her retirement, which took her to Rosyth for the christening of HMS Queen Elizabeth .
After the HMS Ocean returned to the fleet after a long period in the shipyard, the ship was finally decommissioned on August 28, 2014 and left its former home port in December 2016, also for the Turkish scrapping yard in Aliaga, where it arrived at the end of 2016.
Web links
- HMS Illustrious on the Royal Navy website
Individual evidence
- ↑ royalnavy.mod.uk
- ^ Scandal of our scrapyard Navy: We sold Ark Royal to the Turkish for scrap. Retrieved February 12, 2014 .
- ^ Portsmouth-based HMS Illustrious retires from Navy. August 28, 2014, accessed November 8, 2014 .
- ↑ Sailors' pride on new aircraft carrier as Illustrious leaves Portsmouth for the last time . Royal Navy News, December 7, 2016