On 28 August the Royal Navy decommissioned the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. The 20,000-ton, 689-foot ship was the final survivor of three British Invincible-class vertical/short takeoff-and-landing carriers ordered in the mid-1970s to operate helicopters and Harrier “jump jets” primarily in the antisubmarine-warfare role. The Illustrious entered the fleet in 1982, having been rushed into service for action in the Falklands War. Though arriving after hostilities had concluded, she relieved sister HMS Invincible and continued playing an important role through the remainder of the Cold War and into the 21st century. After her Sea Harrier fighters were retired, the Illustrious was converted into a helicopter- and commando-assault ship while sisters HMS Invincible and Ark Royal were retired in 2011. Although the assault-ship role is now being taken up by HMS Ocean, the Invincible class won’t truly be replaced until the two 65,000-ton Queen Elizabeth–class aircraft carriers enter service in the next decade.
On 6 September the Pakistani frigate Zulfiqar came under terrorist attack in what appears to have been a failed attempt to capture the warship as she was readying for an international deployment at a naval base in Karachi. The frigate, one of the most modern and powerful ships in the Pakistani fleet, was delivered from China in 2009 and is armed with eight antiship missiles, a surface-to-air missile system, and 76-mm and 30-mm guns. Although it is highly doubtful that the attackers could have operated the advanced weapon systems without expert assistance, many argue that the deadly attack, which was repulsed by security personnel, would never have been attempted without help from serving or former naval personnel. Details remain uncertain, but media have reported that the ill-advised terrorists may have mistaken the Zulfiqar for an American warship, or perhaps that the raid was intended to capture the Zulfiqar and then attack U.S. naval assets once at sea. The incident is reminiscent of a 2011 terrorist attack on the Pakistani naval station at Mehran, not far from Karachi, which destroyed two P-3 Orion maritime-patrol aircraft.
This fall the U.S. Navy retired two of its oldest mine-countermeasures vessels. The USS Avenger (MCM-1, pictured here), namesake of the class, was decommissioned on 30 September while sister USS Defender (MCM-2) was retired the following day. These two ships entered service two years apart, with the Avenger joining the Fleet in 1987 and the Defender in 1989. More than 50 years of service existed between the two 1,400-ton vessels, which were built by Peterson Builders and Marinette Marine shipyards respectively. Besides a crew of roughly 85 personnel per ship, their most important assets were arguably the remotely operated SLQ-48 mine-hunting and destruction devices. Although 11 of the Avenger-class ships remain in service, it is hoped that all will eventually be replaced by next-generation littoral combat ships carrying modern MCM modules.