Illustrious Sails In

Wednesday February 2010, 08:45:47

Illustrious the Royal Navy's biggest air� craft carrier sailed into Rosyth docks yesterday for a �40 million upgrade.The maintenance contract will secure work for about 330 people at the Fife yard for the next 18 months or so.Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy met Commodore Charles Stevenson, Naval Regional Commander for Scotland, to mark the occasion.They sailed out to welcome the aircraft carrier as she passed under the Forth bridges on her way to the jetty at Crombie.Illustrious, affectionately known as Lusty in the navy, underwent a major refit at Rosyth in 2003/2004, enabling her to deliver modern carrier strike operations and deploy joint force Harriers.Since then she has been deployed to the Indian Ocean, was involved in the evacuation of Lebanon, and for the past year has been the navy�s flagship and strike carrier, leading the multi- national Joint Warrior exercises off Scotland�s west coast.The ship will not have a refit this time but will undergo maintenance to ensure the carrier can continue in efficient service until the second of the navy�s two supercarriers is at sea.Mr Murphy said, �UK defence contracts provide vital skilled work to companies in Scotland and have generated a welcome resurgence in our Scottish shipbuilding industry. It�s heartening to see businesses, some of them small family-owned firms, with full order books, able to take on young apprentices and give them a real future.�And it�s amazing to think that in just a decade, eight navy ships have been launched on the Clyde, and an incredible 45 ships have undergone maintenance and refit at Rosyth, all worth billions of pounds for Scotland�s economy and employment prospects.