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‘Lusty’ returns to dock

HMS Illustrious, has arrived in Scotland for a £40 million refurbishment.

Gary Parsons - 4-Feb-2010

Key - Gary Parsons

February 4: The Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, has arrived in Scotland for a £40 million maintenance and upgrade programme.

The Ministry of Defence contract with Babcock will provide employment for about 300 people for eighteen months at Rosyth Dockyard in Fife.

HMS Illustrious last underwent a major refit at Rosyth back in 2003/04, which built a third mast on the ship and overhauled the computer systems, flight deck, living quarters and communication networks.

This time it will undergo essential maintenance to ensure it can continue in service until the second of the Royal Navy’s new CVF carriers, HMS Prince of Wales, is in service. Over half a million litres of paint will be used.

While ‘Lusty’ is in dock, HMS Ark Royal will become flagship of the Royal Navy fleet. Harriers from the Naval Strike Wing at RAF Cottesmore are scheduled to embark in the spring for a series of exercises.

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3 Comments

Michael Leek said on the 7-Feb-2010 at 20:42

So, HMS Illustrious will be out of commission for 18 months for what seems to be justifiable reasons - though it would be interesting to know in more detail what is being done to justfy 18 months in dock. We've still got Ark Royal and Invinclible that are presumably currently operational (or in commission as the RN call it). Obviously this means we can, in theory and at a push, have one carrier at sea at any one time (though in nuclear ballastic submarine terms we need a minimum of four to ensure one is at sea at all times).

Move the above senario on a few years when HMSs Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales are in commission, and the Invincible class are retired. One new ship operating as a conventional aircraft carrier, the other as a helicopter carrier (without, according to the RN, the former's full capability). This means the UK will be without any sea borne air power for very long periods of time.

Even as a supporter of the new carriers - in their original guise - I ask what is the thinking behind the decision for these carriers? What is their tactical and strategic roles? How will they be deployed and on what cycles?

And when the new carriers are concurrently out of commission what is the plan for the navalised JSFs? Will they be fully integrated with the RAF version (can they be?)? Or will we have expensive kit sitting for long periods of time in storage - as many F3 airframes were/are, and now as Hawk T2s are?

Gary Parsons (Editor) said on the 8-Feb-2010 at 08:51

Note - HMS Invincible is in 'long-term storage' at Portsmouth and is expected to be decommissioned later this year.

Michael Leek said on the 9-Feb-2010 at 02:00

HMS Ark Royal has recently come out of a seven month refit, which means that with HMS Illustrious being made ready for her refit in Rosyth and, as Gary says, Invincible in storage, we went through an extended period last year with no aircraft carrier ready to deploy in the event of an emergency. And this with three carriers. The situation will be even worse when the new carriers come into service.

Try as I might, I can find nothing which explains the thinking behind the decision to build these new carriers. There's plenty of hype - led by BAE Systems - but nothing rational or in-depth.