laststandonzombieisland

MoD photo. Note the comparison in size to the 25,000-ton San Antonio-class LPD in the distance. Also big up and drink in the Apaches.

So the Royal Navy is moving to scrap the helicopter carrier and assault ship HMS Ocean (L12), their current fleet flagship. Britain’s largest warship is currently deployed in the Mediterranean on Cougar 15, an annual NATO exercise, and underwent a £65m upgrade just last year.

“HMS Ocean will not decommission early and will continue in service as planned well into this Parliament. As part of the SDSR process, the decision was taken not to extend her and to decommission her in 2018, in line with her 20-year life span,” the MoD said in a statement as reported by the BBC.

The 23,000-ton/667-foot long LPH was commissioned 30 September 1998 and is based at HMNB Devonport, Plymouth. and can carry a full 830-man reinforced RM Commando unit and a mix of 20~ helicopters.

In the past 17 years she has saved the Crown’s bacon repeatedly, deploying as part of Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone in 2000; Operation Telic, the UK contribution to the 2003 Iraq War; supported EU/NATO ops off Libya in 2011 where her Apaches made mincemeat of lots of random shit; and served as a staging spot for the security efforts during the London 2012 Olympic Games in addition to waving the White Ensign from Brazil to Nicaragua to the Malay Peninsula and all spots in between.

Worse, the new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will not take to the sea untl 2020.

Seems a shame.