4. The HMS Illustrious, UK Illustrious, affectionately called "Lusty" by those serving on her, entered service just after the end of the Falklands War in 1982, and served there as an air station in the postwar years. She was deployed to Bosnia and Iraq in the 1990s, but was undergoing an extensive re-fit during the initial phases of the Iraq War. She'll be replaced once the HMS Queen Elizabeth is commissioned in 2016. Until 2011, 12 Harrier II Fighter Jets and 10 Sea King ASaC helicopters