Illustrious takes on new role

One of the Royal Navy’s former aircraft carriers has been put through its paces for its new role as an amphibious assault ship.

Two waves of Royal Marines stormed a beach after flying in from the deck of HMS Illustrious as part of trials after she underwent a £40 million, 16-month refit to turn her into a helicopter carrier.

The 22,000-tonne ship helped the 80 Marines from 40 Commando storm Braunton Burrows, near the Royal Marines’ base at Chivenor, north Devon.

It was part of the final phase of retraining for the ship, which was originally commissioned as a Cold War anti-submarine warfare carrier in 1982, following the axing of the Navy’s aircraft carrier fleet in the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Royal Marine Lieutenant Colonel Andy Walker, the ship’s amphibious operations officer, said: “Illustrious has had 30 years of being a CVS (aircraft carrier), and becoming a landing platform helicopter ship (LPH) has challenged the mindset of the ship’s company and the geography of the ship.

“There are physical limitations but it is a great Commando carrier, and the crew have been really good at seizing the chance to do something different.”

The assault saw two waves of Marines from the unit based in Taunton, Somerset, land on the beach by Sea King helicopter from Illustrious’ pitching deck in the rough Bristol Channel, along with equipment including a quad bike and trailer used to carry ammunition and casualties.

The ship’s refit, which was completed in June, means it can support a mix of helicopters including Sea King, Lynx, Merlin, Chinook and Apache.

Once the ship has passed its operational sea training, she will replace helicopter carrier HMS Ocean, which will shortly return from active service for a refit at Devonport in Plymouth.

The decommissioning of former Royal Navy flagship HMS Ark Royal this year and the conversion of Illustrious, nicknamed Lusty, into a helicopter carrier, means the UK will have no fixed-wing carrier aircraft capability between 2011 and 2020.

Under the SDSR plans set out in October 2010, the construction of the two new Queen Elizabeth class carriers ordered by the previous Labour government is going ahead.