The Invincible class was a class of light aircraft carrier operated by the Royal Navy. Three ships were constructed: , and . The vessels were built as aviation-capable anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platforms to counter the Cold War North Atlantic Soviet submarine threat, and initially embarked Sea Harrier aircraft and Sea King HAS.1 anti-submarine helicopters. With cancellation of the aircraft carriers renewal programme in the 1960s, the three ships became the replacements for the Audacious-class fleet carriers and the light fleet carriers, and the Royal Navy's sole class of aircraft carrier.
The three vessels saw active service in a number of locations, including the South Atlantic during the Falklands War, the Adriatic during the Bosnian War, and in the Middle East for the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Invincible was decommissioned in 2005 and put in reserve in a low state of readiness. She was sold to a Turkish scrapyard in February 2011, and left Portsmouth under tow on 24 March 2011. Although the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean remained in service, the Royal Navy was without a true aircraft carrier for the first time in nearly a century, until the commissioning of the first of two aircraft carriers in December 2017.
Development
The Invincible class has its origins in a sketch design for a 6,000-ton, guided-missile armed, helicopter carrying escort cruiser intended as a complement to the much larger CVA-01-class fleet aircraft carrier. The cancellation of CVA-01 in 1966 meant that the smaller cruiser would now have to provide the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) taskforce with command and control facilities. Two new designs were prepared for this requirement; The new ships were called "through-deck cruisers" and not "aircraft carrier". This was in part because CVA-01's cancellation was so recent, but also because the ships were intended to serve in traditional cruiser roles of C<sup>3</sup>I and anti-submarine warfare, and were constructed like cruisers. The "aircraft carrier" name did not officially appear in association with the ships until the 1980 Defence Estimates referred to the Invincibles as such.
Economic problems in the UK in the early 1970s delayed progress on the new ships, but the design continued to evolve. The order for the first ship was given to Vickers (Shipbuilding) on 17 April 1973. By now, the design was for a 19,000-ton "CAH" The class also had, since 1976, A later proposal to buy four "Harrier-type" vessels was also discarded, as were later negotiations to buy the Sea Harrier.
The 1981 Defence White Paper and its planned reduction in the size of the carrier fleet saw Invincible marked as surplus to requirements, and the ship was offered for sale to the Royal Australian Navy in July 1981 as a replacement for the ageing aircraft carrier . The class had previously been considered and discarded as a potential replacement for the Australian ship, but the low £175 million (A$285 million) offer price and the already-constructed state of the vessel prompted the Australian government to announce in February 1982 their intention to accept the British offer. In Australian service, the ship would have been named HMAS Australia, and would operate as a helicopter carrier until a later decision on the acquisition of Sea Harriers was made. Invincibles service during the Falklands War showed that the White Paper's suggested reductions were flawed and both nations withdrew from the deal in July 1982.
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 remained the only one of the class in service, but was also retired in 2014. After being laid up it left Portsmouth under tow to the shipbreakers in Turkey on 7 December 2016.
Two larger s replaced the Invincible class, with the first, HMS Queen Elizabeth, commissioned in late 2017. They displace around 65,000 tonnes each – more than three times the displacement of the Invincible class.
Ships in class
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! Name
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! Builder
! Ordered
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| R05
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|| Vickers Armstrong, Barrow.
|| 20 July 1973
|| 3 May 1977