HMS Illustrious heads for Mediterranean 01.10.12
13Royal Navy warship HMS Illustrious has left Portsmouth for a three-month training deployment in the Mediterranean for Exercise Cougar.
The helicopter carrier will form part of the Response Force Task Group (RFTG), which is made up of six ships, more than 20 helicopters and 3,000 troops.
The training exercise will also involve the French and Albanian military.
It starts with a beach assault by the Royal Marines in Cornwall, before the whole RFTG group meets up in the Mediterranean later this month.
The RFTG was created under the 2010 defence review and is a rapid reaction force, which deals with unexpected world events that require military intervention.
HMS Illustrious is due to decommissioned in 2014 and will be preserved by the Ministry of Defence once it leaves service.
The Invincible class ships -- comprising Illustrious, Invincible and Ark Royal -- will be replaced by larger Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers.