HMS Illustrious sets sail to scrapyard

Mynight said:
We have shipyards capable of breaking it down don't we?

I must admit I have no idea how much cost is involved in breaking it down/melting and selling on but surely the amount of metal there is worth more than the above costs?

Obviously I'd prefer to see it as a museum but if it must be broken down surely the raw materials are worth much more than a couple million.
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Steel in ingot form isn't particularly expensive. If it was 20k T of steel neatly cut up and ready to wack in a furnace i doubt anyone would pay more than about £10-15m for it (although obviously it's not just steel but mostly is). Throw in all the costs associated with breaking it down (if probably has asbestos and other **** in it) and it's not a ridiculous price.
 
I thought stuff like this got sold off to lesser developed military forces?

although turning it into a museum surely cant be that much more expensive than scrapping her, and will in the long run generate more money? its not like hms caroline where they needed £13m just to get it into a safe show-able condition.
 
Diddums said:
You'd be surprised. When I was a commodity broker some of the contracts I saw floating around would've blown your mind. There was one for 35 warships. I think they were from Canada iirc. Tens of thousands of tons of metal just sitting there waiting for a buyer.
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Doesn't that reinforce what I said about there not being that many buyers out there?
 
Rroff said:
Thought they'd already scrapped it for some reason - though I only found out recently Invincible had been :S

Not a fan of them being decommissioned without overlap but without harriers not sure what we'd have flown from them anyhow.
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She converted to an LPH role when the harriers went and alternated with HMS Ocean in the role, they decommed Illustrious when Ocean came online from her last refit. Most of Illustrious' crew is probably already assigned to QE which is starting sea trials in the spring.
 
Should have sold it Russia, looked like they could do with a new one with all that smoke coming out it. :D

Seems silly to scrap it before the new ones are ready.
 
daver said:
She converted to an LPH role when the harriers went and alternated with HMS Ocean in the role, they decommed Illustrious when Ocean came online from her last refit. Most of Illustrious' crew is probably already assigned to QE which is starting sea trials in the spring.
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Not really the same as having a proper fighter jet, etc. capability though never mind what we are going to fly from the QE :S
 
ubersonic said:
Doesn't that reinforce what I said about there not being that many buyers out there?
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To a point. That lot did sell in the end, some Qatari chap bought it. Went for over $200m. This stuff does sell, but it can take ages as the margins are so small on it that the sellers always want top dollar, so often big contracts like that one can sit around for a couple of years.
 
adolf hamster said:
I thought stuff like this got sold off to lesser developed military forces?
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Hello India, It's Britain, I say old boy do you fancy buying a rather spiffing light aircraft carrier for use with your British Aerospace Sea Harriers? One careful owner, only light use!

What do you mean you scrapped all of your harriers, I don't recall you asking us for replacements, well what did you repla- MIGS!?!?! Well I suppose you could adapt it to work with those, or maybe you might like some of our shiny new Naval Typhoons! We decided not to buy them ourselves because America's F-35 looked better but they are still top notch!

Oh I see, are you sure? It's a nice ship and would go lovely with that WW2 carrier we sold you in the eighties! What do you mean that's being scrapped next year? Well what are yo- RUSSIAN SHIPS!?! Well, do you at least want to buy it for scrap? It's good steel, comes with lots of asbestos to aid flotation!

I see, well do let us know if you change your mind old chap, goodbye.

*glug* Rule Britannia *glug glug* Britannia rule the waves *glug* Britons never, never ......
 
MonkeyMan said:
Should have sold it Russia, looked like they could do with a new one with all that smoke coming out it. :D
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Russia don't use aircraft carriers. The ship you are thinking of is an aircraft cruiser, they look somewhat similar but they are a completely different design.


MonkeyMan said:
Seems silly to scrap it before the new ones are ready.
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After the harriers were scrapped it became just a helicopter carrier, we already have a newer much more capable helicopter carrier (HMS Ocean).
 
I would sooner see turned into a LIFE sentence floating prison, where food is heli lifted in every 2 days just inside UK waters with no guards.
 
Panos said:
Seriously, £2.1m the Government has taken from the Tuskish yard to scrap it, is peanuts against the billions squandered for other meaningless matters.
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Would spending millions restoring & preserving a rusting, obsolete hulk not also count as part of those billions being squandered on meaningless matters. At least we got £2m for it, could have been nothing.
 
ChroniC said:
What is this, some sort of Vin Diesel movie. :)
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Wasnt it Stallone/Arnie who starred in a film of exactly this?

ubersonic said:
Hello India, It's Britain, I say old boy do you fancy buying a rather spiffing light aircraft carrier for use with your British Aerospace Sea Harriers? One careful owner, only light use!

What do you mean you scrapped all of your harriers, I don't recall you asking us for replacements, well what did you repla- MIGS!?!?! Well I suppose you could adapt it to work with those, or maybe you might like some of our shiny new Naval Typhoons! We decided not to buy them ourselves because America's F-35 looked better but they are still top notch!

Oh I see, are you sure? It's a nice ship and would go lovely with that WW2 carrier we sold you in the eighties! What do you mean that's being scrapped next year? Well what are yo- RUSSIAN SHIPS!?! Well, do you at least want to buy it for scrap? It's good steel, comes with lots of asbestos to aid flotation!

I see, well do let us know if you change your mind old chap, goodbye.

*glug* Rule Britannia *glug glug* Britannia rule the waves *glug* Britons never, never ......
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:D well done sir
 
Just another reminder of how ridiculous it is that we don't currently operate a single ship that is capable of launching fast jets and won't do for another 4-6 years. Fingers crossed we don't need one in that time I guess.
 
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