The UK MoD’s Disposal Services Authority has offered ex-HMS Invincible for sale by tender on its website. The aircraft carrier is listed as sound for towing but not in running condition, and will almost certainly be scrapped, with the MoD offering to pre-rig a tow inorder to expedite her speedy removal from the dockyard.
The ship is laid up at Portsmouth in generally poor condition, with her four gas-turbine engines and propellers removed and other machinery, electrical and auxiliary ship systems described as not working, locked or not fit for use. This is unsurprising, as she has been left to deteriorate after leading the Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review celebrations in 2005. Despite her material state, the Falklands War veteran only officially ceased to be an operational asset on 10 September 2010.
At the time of writing there was early interest from Leavesley International, the company that scrapped HMS Intrepid at Liverpool in 2008, and from ship breakers Port Millom in Cumbria.
