HMS Illustrious is the second of 3 Invincible Class Light Aircraft Carriers built for the Royal Navy in the late 1970s and early 1980s
She is the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and is affectionately known to her crew as "Lusty"
In 1982, the conflict in the Falklands necessitated that Illustrious be completed and rushed south to join her sister ship HMS Invincible and the veteran carrier HMS Hermes
To this end, she was brought forward by three months for completion at Swan Hunter Shipyard, then commissioned on June 20, 1982 at sea en-route to Portsmouth Dockyard to take on board extra stores and crew
She arrived in the Falklands to relieve Invincible on 28 August 1982 in a steam past. Returning to the UK, she was not formally commissioned into the fleet until 20 March 1983.
After the Falklands War, she was deployed on -
- Operation Southern Watch in Iraq
- Operation Deny Flight in Bosnia during the 1990s and
- Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone in 2000.
An extensive re-fit during 2002 prevented her from involvement in the 2003 Iraq War, but she was repaired in time to assist British citizens trapped by the 2006 Lebanon War
Following the retirement of her fixed-wing British Aerospace Harrier II aircraft in 2010, Illustrious now operates as one of two Royal Navy Helicopter Carriers
She is the oldest ship in the Royal Navy's active fleet and it is envisaged that she will be withdrawn from service at the end of 2014 (after 32 years' service) and will not be replaced until HMS Queen Elizabeth is commissioned in 2016
Crew members line the deck of HMS Illustrious as she sails into her home port of Portsmouth for the final time ahead of being retired on July 22,2014
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