Future
The Sea Harrier was officially retired on 1 April 2006. The principal weapon of the Invincible-class carriers then became the Harrier GR9 flown by two Fleet Air Arm and two RAF squadrons until they were retired in 2010. Since then they have only operated helicopters.
Invincible was decommissioned in July 2005, and was mothballed until September 2010. She was put up for sale in November 2010. In early February 2011 it was announced that she had been sold to a Turkish scrapyard, Leyal Ship Recycling; Leyal has been involved in the scrapping of various Royal Navy ships, including HMS Cardiff, HMS Newcastle, HMS Glasgow and RFA Oakleaf. Invincible left Portsmouth under tow for scrapping on 24 March 2011.
Ark Royal took over as the flagship, was planned to be decommissioned in 2016, but retired in 2010 following the Strategic Defence and Security Review.
Illustrious remains the only one of the class in service but will also retire once HMS Ocean comes out of its next refit in 2014.
Two much larger Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers are being built, and are expected to enter service in 2016 and 2018 under present plans. They are expected to displace around 65,000 tonnes each - more than three times the displacement of the Invincible class.
Read more about this topic: Invincible Class Aircraft Carrier
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“As the mother of a son, I do not accept that alienation from me is necessary for his discovery of himself. As a woman, I will not cooperate in demeaning womanly things so that he can be proud to be a man. I like to think the women in my son’s future are counting on me.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)
““Dark times” is what they call it in Norway when the sun remains below the horizon all day long: the temperature falls slowly but surely at such times.—A nice metaphor for all those thinkers for whom the sun of mankind’s future has temporarily disappeared.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Perhaps if the future existed, concretely and individually, as something that could be discerned by a better brain, the past would not be so seductive: its demands would be balanced by those of the future. Persons might then straddle the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object. It might be fun.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)