HMS Illustrious is to be sold for scrap after schemes to preserve her for the nation as a floating museum fell through.
Scrap dealers are being asked to bid to “recycle” the retired HMS Illustrious. The announcement is expected to end hopes the carrier can be saved. It is understood that three cities submitted proposals to try to preserve the vessel but each fell through.
Following the retirement of her Harriers in 2010, Illustrious operated as one of two Royal Navy helicopter carriers. By 2014 she was the oldest ship in the Royal Navy’s active fleet, having 32 years’ service, and will not be replaced until HMS Queen Elizabeth is in service. It was originally announced that Illustrious would be preserved for the nation, this now seems unlikely.
An MoD spokeswoman said:
“We have done all we can for over two years to find a home for the former HMS Illustrious in the UK, and regrettably no suitable bidder has come forward. While it is a difficult decision, we have announced an open competition for the recycling of HMS Illustrious, while remaining open to heritage options.”
The notice, which can be found here, states:
“The Disposal Services Authority (DSA) is inviting expressions of interest for the sale of the former HMS Illustrious for recycling. She was decommissioned in 2014.
All parties interested in acquiring the vessel should note that a Bank Guarantee of £2 Million will be required by the DSA and will not bereleased until the recycling of the vessel is nearing completion. Viewing of the vessel is due to take place in June (date to be confirmed).”
While this is a shame, it’s understandable as most believe the money required to run the vessel as a museum while maintaining her is simply not there.
I’ve always wondered, where is she now? Is she in Portsmouth still being manned and maintained buy the RN, and can she still sail under her own power?
she would need a reactivation proceedure which could be done in around 8 weeks, recrewing could be chieved by transfer from r.n. reserves and the fleet of sailors with a history of having srved on lusty the ark royal and ,invincible.
She is laid up in Portsmouth in Fareham Creek awaiting disposal. She is unmanned & will have been stripped of all useable equipment.
Good.
These so called ‘aircraft carriers’ were an embarrassment to the UK & RN.
A floating reminder of managed post WWII decline by gutless 3rd rate politicians.
Respect goes out to the crews, they did their very best with what they were given, but what they were given was embarrassing given the history of the RN.
the shame lies squarely with the muddled p halfwits at the treasury/m.o.d who don’t have a clue what they need or howto operate the royal navy
i as in the falklands and i assure you now they did exactly what they were sent to do. and i for one are glad of it.
It is such a shame, she is worth saving, maybe do something, like what the americans did with intrepid.
No one would put up the money.
I know and that i what is so sad.
HMG could have bothered to put up the money.
I totally agree, I mean compared to the Army and the RAF the Navy have very little preserved.
ocean should be kept, with illustrious as her replacement and bristol should be re comisioned and returned to the fleet. there’s no point bleating on about a shortage of destroyers when we have on being used as a training ship,
Wouldn’t you rather they kept that money to pay for actual warships, rather than museums? With respect, I’d rather we properly funded the new carriers.
I would rather we did both.
That is a good point, but whatever the right or wrongs somebody should of saved her.
But I take the point entirely – the state of affairs means there is only one choice and we can agree which one it must be.
It would be good have her preserved for the next generation as museum
We are lacking in a substantial Navy! I think it should go under refit and carry on service! It would be an advantage to keep more than too loose!
And the Government should fund this instead of sending money abroad to countries who would more than likely not help us if the roles/ situations were reversed!
Mark Whitehead get real. If i sent you to war with old out dated kit you would be the first to complain
we were sent to thefalklands in ships not fit for purpose, the bulwark in bits to keep hermes at sea. and blake in mothballs the county class’s antrim an glamorgan were floating bombs the type 21’s unable to take the rough seas secat systems which could have been replaced by a couple of cooks with peashooters.
This is a disgrace she is the last ship that served in the falklands war left she deserves to be a museum not some foreign Turkish scrapyard which tragically claimed her 2 sister ships Invincible and Ark Royal
Unfortunately the money just isn’t there, no company wants to run a museum this expensive.
The war was over by the time she arrived, played no active part. Get rid of it as it’s currently hiding the disgrace that is the deactivated 23 and 45 behind it!
It would also be nice to keep one of our old aircraft carriers so when the new Queen Elizabeth carriers come in we could see a mixture of old and new carriers
There you go, now scrap it and address the state of the active fleet! If you wanted something to commemorate the war you should’ve fought to save HMS Plymouth!
Simeon Hawkins
How true is that
I was lucky enough to get board HMS Plymouth when she was docked at Plymouth as a museum.
Plymouth city council are a bloody disgrace!
She was the last war ship to be built at Devonport !
Yet meant bugger all to them and let her go !
And the surrender of the Falklands was signed on board …..disgrace that she was allowed to be scrapped
HMS ANTRIM WAS THE FIRST RN SHIP TO ARRIVE IN THE FALKLANDS AND WAS ALSO THE LAST TO BE DETATCHED FOR HOME, ONLY TO BE SENT THERE AGAIN FOR OVER THE XMAS AND NEW YEAR(VERY UNHAPPY CREW) I WAS ON IT
She wasn’t in the Falklands.
SHE ARRIVED JUST AFTER HOSTILITIES ENDED TO RELIEVE INVINCIBLE ,
Put her on the Thames , Surely enough tourists would pay for her upkeep ,
keep it or give it to ME
agreed.
Thanks to our government shame on you
It’s not the fault of the government, the issue lies at there being no commercial viability in retaining i.
They’re building two MASSIVE aircraft carriers where’s the shame?
They’ll probably be as unreliable as the type 45 so I’d say pretty shameful.
Lee, come on, you can’t just make up nonsense like that to justify a point. You’re an adult.
Why not sell it? Could make some money instead of scrapping it…
It is being sold, for scrap
I meant selling it to some other country…
give it to another commonwealth country.
Probably greater value in the metal: a ski-jump carrier is a very specialised beast, and there’s not many countries that could use it even if they could afford it.
No one wants it.
What was the asking price??
£5 or a donation to the donkey trust
Anyone buying it would have to be mad. The RN strip out the engines, power plant, etc. All they’d get is a 32 year old hulk, that would cost millions each year BEFORE you replace the stuff the RN take out.
Is there nothing left inside her Gerry? I thought she complete inside? How could you even hope to make a museum if she was not?
she has been de munitioned, drained of corrosive materials kept dry inside by de humidifing equipment. air wing equipment has been stripped out any spares usable for ships operating under foreign flags such as the type 22’s in use elsewhere arebagged, tagged and stored.limited shore power.
new fresh water, a crew, re storing fuelling and she’d almost be good to go.
Why not keep it in service and have it patrol the seas around England ?
Costs and inefficiency mostly
its obvious that decomisioning hms ocean will leave a hole in the royal navy’s ability to fulfil its task obligations, prior to oceans multi million pound refit her role was covered by illustrious,the illustrious, thanks to another stupid decision by the mo.d to retire the harrier instead of upgrading the harriers tot he modern upgraded specifications made to the u.s, marine corps harriers made her position in the fleet untenable. operational cost of the’lusty compared to ocean are not unreasonable it should not go for scrap it should be replaned with the chinook and merlin helecopterand put to sea again.
Then maybe you some sort of practise ? Keep it within a city and have recruits train on it ? Just a shame to scrap something as cool as that
Or tell them I will buy it and I can have it in my back garden, that’s if the council will allow that hahahaha
WHERE IS YOUR GARDEN? HYDE PARK?
We apparently barely have enough sailors to crew the new carriers, let alone old ones!
National service ?
never going to happen
Sadly Louis that idea isn’t feasible. There are already vessels more suited to training recruits that don’t incur such high costs. Also, there are air bases in England (Scotland and Wales too!) that are able to perform aviation related tasks around UK shores at a fraction of the cost.
?
That was strange UK Defence Journal the comment thread vanished as I was about to ask why Joe’s comment was deemed in bad taste, could you please elaborate from your rules why it is so as I could not find any rules on the page.
Did not David Cameron PROMISE to save it for the nation ?
No…
No he didn’t, he promised to build 2 new carriers, which we are doing
No.
A chuffing disgrace.Probably off to Turkey ffs where most of our ships have been scrapped.
A sad story but I think the money involved to keep her in a museum state would be astronomical.
“Nice” to see we are making everybody else rich while scrapping ourselves into oblivion. A more ridiculous nation, I have never known in all my life.
Shameful !
Maggie will be turning in her grave!
Steady on
NOOOO
Disgusting
We could club together? It’d be great for parties…
Museum?
Will be very expensive…..there is no one that will take on the project. Funding would have to come from HLF and private donors who are willing to accept there will be no profit in it
even in a museum state, preservation, and mooring/docking etc shoe’d go for scrap anyway she’d cost a fortune whatever you did with her.if any of her steel is reusable i’d like to see it go the yards tasked with building type 26 or 31 ships,. for the future
I bet china have her
Maybe people should remember it was these aircraft carriers that kept the Falklands in the hands of the islanders. To say they are an embarrassment is disrespecting their achievements and their crews let’s not forget the humanitarian relief they gave
I thought it was going to Hull for some culture exhibition, as there was talk of her going to Pompey as a museum ship with support from the Fleet Air Arm museum. Might pay to sail her up the Thames and park her outside Westminster as a reminder to MPs of our once mighty navy!
excellent idea
Money to turn it into a museum should come from the lottery, they fund other English heritage and countless so called art and theatre projects why not this.
Shocker!!!!!! Not! Why can we not scrap our own ships instead of sending them to Turkey. What man at the top is getting a back hander.
Instead of going off on one do some reading on the subject – no back handers involved.
Manpower costs, specialist manpower capacity, lack of facilities, environmental considerations, recycling facilities, etc, etc…
However if you think it is a real shame and “someone” should do something about it – why not you?
Set up a business case, cost out the infrastructure and manpower then pootle off to the bank for a chat!
bae boss, they get all the contracts
Near most American city’s with links have some sort of maritime museum …..USS ALABAMA in mobile is an example there’s even a Blackbird AND a ww2 boat and other militarilia
All we have is Alliance
Turn it into a museum dedicated to the Royal Navy
I just hope the 2nd of the queen elizabeth class is renamed ark royal
Why? The name Prince of Wales has so much history behind it….
Thats a fair point but so does ark royal
It will not be
The namesake for the ships are important and the QE is to honour Queen Elizabeth I and Prince of Wales honours the title (not the person)…..i have always said that our capital ships should be named after royals. If the UK builds a new class of LHDs then HMS Ark Royal will/may return.
I read somewhere the prince of wales has been asked if he would give the honor up and apparently he said he wouldnt mind
Rather she was called Warspite.
Scandalous decision that R09 will not be named Ark Royal
or victory
Wouldn’t surprise me if the bought a Spanish or French LHD to appease them for Gibraltar or for something else equally stupid.
PoW will not be renamed Ark Royal.
UK Defence Journal why not?
TOURIST T- SHIRTS ARE ALREADY PRINTED!
Ok sorry ?
I’m sorry but if we can keep Nelsons flagship, Has Bristol and an old Submarine in Portsmouth then surely we can keep Illustrious, after all its the Invincible class Aircraft Carrier is who we have to thank for winning the Falklands. So maybe we should keep it as a floating museum, with Falkland spec Harriers and Sea Kings on the flight dec as a fitting tribute to those who lost there life in 1982.
Would be a heck of a dive wreck of the Cornish coast. A few warships have come close and would generate tourism income.
Ark Royal should of been saved, it’s a shame non of these ships are being saved ,
So much history going to be scrapped. Least the new generation are more than capable of carrying on ??
What a shame, the government should step in and pay for this and retain it as a public piece, it doesn’t have to be financially viable, after all the opera and other performing arts are not financially viable and yet huge amount of government money.
We have a proud navy history and yet there is less than a handful of the famous ships left preserved for future generations to understand the history of their country.
donate it to the australian/canadian/ kiwi navy’s in recognition of their service to the u.k. in the past.
Surely, MOD could gift it to to ‘gib.or whoever wants it ? If that fails….so be it. But why not let people try to make a go of it ? X
It’s a warship….let’s not get too sentimental
Do the Indians not want it. Hermes is getting a bit old and looking for a replacement
Not base her in med for fakeugees
It should remain in service. A refit would make it an extremely effective warship and an asset to the fleet.
Sadly not, the hull life of the vessel is such that keeping her at sea would be far more expensive. Keeping her in service as a helicopter carrier would be futile.
Either way we will still require smaller aircraft carriers and helicopter carriers for a balanced fleet. Given how we have downgraded the RN this is probably highly unlikely albeit ill advised.
Sorry, I disagree.
Give it to Gibraltar they would look after it and turn it into a tourist attraction
Take her out into deep water and sink her.
Sell it to N Korea then let the yanks sink it 🙂
There are huge gaps in our maritime and aviation heritage because no one would plan ahead and put up the cash. When it’s gone it’s gone so lost to future generations. The Lottery should help out with this one.
Should station her in the Falklands with a few harriers on it and the Ocean should be stationed in Gibraltar would solve a couple of big problems there
OMG the harrier has been gone 6 years get over it
What problems would that solve?
Put the Argies off
& the Sea Harrier’s been gone 10 years….
If RAF Mount Pleasant doesn’t deter them…
Turn it into a ferry for the isle of wight. …
Shame… I was on the Illustrious in 1986 and she is a beautiful ship.
http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/?gclid=CM3bhuSzxswCFcQrvQodMDwISg
I hope a replacement for ocean is announced sdsr 2020. Call her Ark Royal
or illustrious
prison ship 🙂
I have 5$ USD is that enough to buy it?
Yes she is a warship but what differs her from the aztec, egyptian or roman empires of old, only age. in 50/1000 years people will be interested to learn of the British empire and yet nothing is left. The Falkland war was the last major naval wars (and we all hope it stays that way) and yet soon there will be nothing left to remember it. We have a patchy history with our empire, and there is a lot that we are not that proud of, but the falkland war war without a debut a war of horror. I don’t… Read more »
What did the British ever do for us?….
Railroads
Hovercraft
Jet engine
Computers etc.
They’ll be some comedy film in 50 years time with four well known actors blurting it out!
Turn it into a floating Mosque perhaps?
AND SINK EX IT AS A TEST OF THE ASTUTE SUBS CAPABILITY
How much do they expect to get from scrapping her? Would make an interesting hotel, conference centre and restaurants with possibly a sports club.. It’s certainly big enough and surely this is viable unless the MOD are making it difficult or is it just to unconventional for any of the big operators to even look at?
Deserves better. She could be turned in to a musuem
No one wants to buy it for that role.