What will happen to the invincible class aircraft carriers?
They’ll be sold off or scrapped. Invincible already sits in No 1 Basin in Portsmouth Dockyard in what is euphemistically called ‘extended readiness’ but in reality means it is being used as a parts store for the other two carriers. Albion and Bulwark are relatively new and are purpose built assault ships rolled out as a much delayed replacement for Fearless and Intrepid. And Ocean is a purpose built (ok, it’s based on an Invincible class hull) helicopter carrier assault ship. The current carriers would require massive refitting to turn them into assault ships like Ocean, as internally Ocean is completely different to the Invincible class and structural alteration would be required to make the Invincible class suitable for accommodating companies of Royal Marines along with the standard crew. I was on Ark Royal in 2003 with two companies of Royal Marines, which made it so cramped some of them were on camp beds in the aircraft hangar. Ocean can carry hundreds of troops in proper mess dec
