HMS Illustrious, the UK’s only working aircraft carrier and the last surviving ship from the Falklands War is to be scrapped. The 689 ft-long 22,000-tonne Invincible-class aircraft carrier traveled close to one million sea miles in her 32-year career with the Royal Navy, serving in conflicts from the Falklands to Bosnia and Iraq. She was decommissioned in 2014. Proposals to turn the ship into a floating museum or attraction space all fell through. Bids are reportedly being solicited to scrap the ship.
Great Britain has two new aircraft carriers under construction. The first, HMS Queen Elizabeth, is due to be commissioned in 2017 with initial operations in 2020. Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
Terrible journalism. Illustrious didn’t fight in the Falklands War – she got there some time after the fighting had ended. And there are several other ships surviving from that conflict. One, HMS Bristol, is still in commission with the RN.