Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier HMS Illustrious is pictured returning to Portsmouth following her refit in Scotland.HMS Illustrious returned to her Portsmouth home today (July 7) after completing a £40m maintenance and upgrade programme in Scotland.The 22,000 tonne ship, affectionately known as Lusty, was in the Rosyth dockyard in Fife for 16 months where she underwent modifications to turn her into a helicopter and commando carrier capable of carrying a force of up to 20 helicopters and 600 fully kitted out personnel.Since leaving Rosyth on June 18 Illustrious has been undergoing sea trials off the UK coast. She will carry out further tests off the south coast before returning to the RN fleet at the end of this month.Photographer: LA(Phot) Nicky Wilson
What a waste of a fine ship. A commando carrier is fine....but it just won't be as lethal as it should be without its Harriers.
while i agree the loss of their harriers is a bad thing i like the idea of a ship thats dedicated to a helo assualt of special ops forces, the kitty hawk was used for that purpose for a while in the 2000's. Maybe having one of the older carriers with a smaller crew and complement of helos (like the kittyhawk or one of the other ships decommissioned) may not be a bad idea for special ops forward deployed, imagine the range you could get by putting a complement of V22s on there.
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