![]() Hermes with her final air wing prior to converting to the Commando/ASW carrier role | |
History | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Name | Hermes |
Namesake | Hermes |
Builder | Vickers-Armstrong |
Laid down | 21 June 1944 |
Launched | 16 February 1953 |
Commissioned | 25 November 1959 |
Decommissioned | 1984 |
Stricken | 1985 |
Homeport | HMNB Portsmouth |
Identification | Pennant number: 61 (1945) R12 (1951) R22 (as Viraat) |
Fate | Sold to India, 1986, and renamed Viraat, scrapped 2021 |
![]() | |
Name | Viraat |
Acquired | May 1987 |
Decommissioned | 6 March 2017 [1] |
Identification | Pennant number: R22 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | Centaur-class aircraft carrier |
Displacement | |
Length | |
Beam |
|
Draught | 8.50 m (27 ft 11 in) |
Installed power |
|
Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
Speed | 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph) |
Range | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
Complement | 2,100 |
Sensors and processing systems | MRS-3 fire-control system |
Armament |
|
Aircraft carried |
|
HMS Hermes was a conventional British aircraft carrier and the last of the Centaur class.
Hermes was in service with the Royal Navy from 1959 until 1984, and she served as the flagship of the British forces during the 1982 Falklands War.
After being sold to India in 1986, the vessel was recommissioned and remained in service with the Indian Navy as INS Viraat until 2017.
The ship was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness during World War II as HMS Elephant. Construction was suspended in 1945 but work was resumed in 1952 to clear the slipway and the hull was launched on 16 February 1953. The vessel remained unfinished until 1957; then she entered service on 18 November 1959 as HMS Hermes after extensive modifications which included installation of a massive Type 984 'searchlight' 3D radar, a fully angled deck with a deck-edge lift, and steam catapults. With these changes she more resembled the reconstructed aircraft carrier Victorious than the other three ships in the class.
Hermes initially operated Supermarine Scimitar, de Havilland Sea Vixen, and Fairey Gannet fixed-wing aircraft, together with Westland Whirlwind helicopters.
The construction cost of Hermes was £18 million, [2] with a further £1 million for electronic equipment [2] and a further £10 million for aircraft in 1959. [2]
On 16 November 1962, Hermes was cruising off of the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales when one of her helicopters carrying two Members of Parliament, Lord Windlesham and the MP for Loughborough, John Cronin, back from the carrier, which they had been visiting, to RNAS Brawdy, crashed off St David's Head. While Cronin and the helicopter's two-man crew were saved by another helicopter from Hermes, Lord Windlesham and an RAF officer being carried as a passenger were killed. [3] [4]
During the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Sea Vixen FAW1s of Hermes were tasked to bomb targets in the Soviet Union with the Red Beard nuclear bombs. An observer of the Sea Vixen squadron described his experience as follows: “We used to do ground attack, and we had a nuclear capability. During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, I was in our squadron’s nuclear team. We were on red alert for three days, not practice, but for real. I was sweating because my target was Sevastopol in the Crimea." [5]
John Hay, Civil Lord of the Admiralty, said in Parliament on 2 March 1964 that "Phantoms will be operated from "Hermes", "Eagle" and the new carrier when it is built. ... Our present information and advice is that the aircraft should be able to operate from "Hermes" after she has undergone her refit." [6] This seemed optimistic, as most sources believed Victorious was the smallest carrier then in commission that the modified RN F-4K versions of the Phantom could realistically have operated from. The British Rolls-Royce Spey engines replacing the US General Electric J79 were a political necessity given the cancellation of the supersonic British Hawker Siddeley P.1154 V/STOL aircraft project. The projected superior fuel efficiency using the Spey engines was overshadowed by larger engine size and inflexibility. From the smaller Hermes maximum weight at takeoff would be 25 tons rather than 28 tons when operating off Eagle. [7] Since this lower weight at launch from Hermes would be achieved by carrying less fuel, combat air patrol duration would be 25 to 50 percent less than from Eagle; from 2–2.5 hours to 1–1.5 hrs, [8] and only partly compensated by refuelling when airborne. It was optimistically believed Hermes could replace its Vixens with Spey-powered Phantoms on a one-to-one basis, [9] i.e. 11–12 with 7–8 Blackburn Buccaneer strike aircraft. While the Phantoms built for the RN were modified in ways similar to Vought F-8 Crusaders for the French Navy – improving deceleration on landing – the modifications were not entirely successful. Hermes's flight deck was too short, her arresting gear as well as her catapults were not powerful enough to recover or launch the F-4Ks, even though they were slightly lighter, more economical and higher performing than their US Navy counterparts[ citation needed ]. The Phantom trials held on Hermes in 1969–1970 proved this, though in the views of the then Minister of Defence, Denis Healey, the carrier could operate the most modern aircraft, but in too small numbers to be effective. While it is clear that McNamara's claims that the F-4 was not safe for use on the USN Essex class, or 31,000-ton carriers, was rightly rejected by John Hay in 1964. [10]
A 1966 review indicated that Hermes was surplus to operational requirements and she was offered to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) as a replacement for HMAS Melbourne. In 1968, Hermes took part in a combined exercise with the RAN, during which the carrier was visited by senior RAN officers and Australian government officials, while RAN Douglas A-4G Skyhawks and Grumman S-2 Trackers practised landings on the larger carrier. [11] The offer was turned down due to operating and manpower costs.
Hermes served as one of four Royal Navy strike carriers mainly in the Indian Ocean and finally in the Mediterranean Sea until decommissioned in 1970. She could have seen action against the Egyptians when Egypt closed off the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping in May 1967 when the UK and US contemplated forming an international fleet to open the straits with force if necessary, [12] but the UK backed down. According to a memorandum of conversation dated May 25, 1967 between the US Secretaty of State Dean Rusk and the British Minister of State for Foreign Affairs George Thomson, 'The British felt that a carrier [Hermes] in the Red Sea would be a sitting duck if Nasser got nasty.' [13]
Squadron | Aircraft type | Number of aircraft | Role |
---|---|---|---|
801 NAS | Blackburn Buccaneer S.2 | 7 | Strike |
893 NAS | de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.2 | 12 | Fleet air defence |
849A NAS | Fairey Gannet AEW.3 | 4 | Airborne early warning |
Fairey Gannet COD.4 | 1 | Carrier on-board delivery | |
814 NAS | Westland Wessex HAS.3 | 5 | Anti-submarine warfare |
Ships Flight | Westland Wessex HAS.1 | 1 | Air-sea rescue & Utility |
When the decision was made in the mid-1960s to phase out fixed wing carrier operations Hermes was slated to become a "Commando Carrier" for Royal Marine operations (similar in concept to a US Navy LHA). Therefore, Hermes was docked down in number 10 Dock in Devonport Dockyard between 1971 and 1973, undergoing a conversion in which her arresting cables, steam catapults, and 3-D radar were removed. Landing craft and berthing for 800 troops were added and her airwing became approximately 20 Westland Sea King helicopters. By 1976, with the Soviet submarine threat becoming apparent and through NATO pressure, a further mild conversion was performed for Hermes to become an anti-submarine warfare carrier to patrol the North Atlantic. Hermes underwent one more conversion and new capabilities were added when she was refitted at Portsmouth from 1980 to June 1981, during which a 12° ski-jump and facilities for operating BAe Sea Harriers were incorporated. [15]
After this refit the air wing comprised:
Hermes was due to be decommissioned in 1982 after the 1981 Defence Review (that would have made the Royal Navy considerably smaller) by the British government, but when the Falklands War broke out, she was made the flagship of the British forces, setting sail for the South Atlantic just three days after the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. She sailed for the Falklands with an airgroup of 12 Sea Harrier FRS1 attack aircraft of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and 18 Sea King helicopters. A few weeks after sailing, more aircraft were flown or transported via other ships to replace some losses and augment the task force. Hermes's airgroup grew to 16 Sea Harriers, 10 Hawker Siddeley Harrier GR3s of the Royal Air Force, and 10 Sea Kings (after some of the helicopters were dispersed to other ships) as well as a troop of Special Air Service (SAS) and Royal Marines. As she was the RN's largest carrier, she was considered too valuable to risk in close to the Falklands, due to the possibility of Argentine air force attacks. Her Harriers therefore operated at the limit of their endurance radius but were very successful in keeping the enemy aircraft at bay.
Air group at the height of the Falklands Conflict:
The aircraft carrier was carrying 16 nuclear depth bombs as part of her standard armament when she deployed for the Falklands, and was one of several Royal Navy warships so equipped during the war. The weapons were removed while she was in the South Atlantic during June 1982. [16]
After her return home from the Falklands conflict Hermes entered into a much needed 4-month refit to her propulsion and electrical systems, as well as a thorough cleaning and repainting. When this was completed in November 1982, she embarked stores and performed work-ups exercises. She then took part in NATO exercises in the North Atlantic, and the Mediterranean Sea as a commando carrier. In the autumn of 1983 she took part in her last exercise, Ocean Safari, where she reverted to a strike carrier role, embarking 12 Sea Harriers, 10 RAF Harrier GR.3s and 10 Sea Kings. After this exercise, she called into Devonport for a minor refit and thereafter into maintained reserve in Portsmouth.
In 1983, when the proposed sale of the aircraft carrier Invincible to the Royal Australian Navy was cancelled following the Falklands War, an offer was made to sell Hermes and a squadron of Sea Harriers to Australia. However the new Hawke government decided against purchasing a replacement for HMAS Melbourne. [17]
Hermes served with the Royal Navy until 12 April 1984. On this day she entered Portsmouth with a reduced crew, under her own steam, flying the White Ensign for the final time as a seagoing ship.
In April 1986 Hermes was towed from Portsmouth Dockyard to Devonport Dockyard to be refitted, reactivated and sold to India, recommissioning and sailing as INS Viraat in 1987. [18]
The typical aircraft complement in the late 1960s consisted of 12 Sea Vixen FAW2s, 7 Buccaneer S2s, 4 Gannet AEW3s, 1 Gannet COD4, 5 Wessex HAS3s and 1 Wessex HAS1. Hermes was recommissioned as a commando carrier in 1973, as an ASW carrier in 1976 (carrying around 20 or so Sea King and Wessex helicopters), and then as a V/STOL carrier in 1981. Hermes initial complement of aircraft as a V/STOL carrier was five Harriers and 12 Sea King helicopters, though she had the capacity for up to a total of 37 aircraft.
Following her decommissioning from the Indian Navy in 2017, a crowdfunding campaign was launched to preserve Hermes as a museum piece. [19] The campaign aimed to raise £100,000, but was only able to raise £9,303 before being declared unsuccessful. [20]
On 1 November 2018 the Maharashtra cabinet approved the conversion of Viraat into India's first moored maritime museum and marine adventure centre. It would be located near Nivati, Sindhudurg district. [21] [22] On 1 July 2019 the Indian Minister of State for Defence informed the Indian Parliament that a decision to scrap Viraat had been taken due to the non-receipt of any financially self-sustaining proposal. [23]
The ship is currently being scrapped in a ship breakers yard in Alang, India. As of December 2020, about five per cent of the ship was already gone. The distinctive take-off ramp used by the Harrier jump jets had been removed. [24] On 10 February 2021, the Supreme Court of India had ordered the dismantling be placed on hold, following a petition by a private firm to turn the ship into a museum, [25] but on 12 April 2021 it dismissed the petition saying it was too late since 40% of the ship had been dismantled. [26]
INSVikrant was a Majestic-class aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. The ship was laid down as HMS Hercules for the British Royal Navy during World War II, but was put on hold when the war ended. India purchased the incomplete carrier in 1957, and construction was completed in 1961. Vikrant was commissioned as the first aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy and played a key role in enforcing the naval blockade of East Pakistan during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five RN fighting arms. As of 2023 it is a primarily helicopter force, undertaking roles once performed by biplanes such as the Fairey Swordfish. It operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike and the AW159 Wildcat and AW101 Merlin for commando and anti-submarine warfare.
The Invincible class was a class of light aircraft carrier operated by the Royal Navy. Three ships were constructed: HMS Invincible, HMS Illustrious and HMS Ark Royal. The vessels were built as aviation-capable anti-submarine warfare (ASW) platforms to counter the Cold War North Atlantic Soviet submarine threat, and initially embarked Sea Harrier aircraft and Sea King HAS.1 anti-submarine helicopters. With cancellation of the aircraft carriers renewal programme in the 1960s, the three ships became the replacements for Ark Royal and Eagle fleet carriers and the Centaur-class light fleet carriers, and the Royal Navy's sole class of aircraft carrier.
HMS Invincible was the Royal Navy's lead ship of her class of three light aircraft carriers. She was launched on 3 May 1977 as the seventh ship to carry the name. She was originally designated as an anti-submarine warfare carrier, but was used as an aircraft carrier during the Falklands War, when she was deployed with HMS Hermes. She took over as flagship of the British fleet when Hermes was sold to India. Invincible was also deployed in the Yugoslav Wars and the Iraq War. In 2005, she was decommissioned, and was eventually sold for scrap in February 2011.
A light aircraft carrier, or light fleet carrier, is an aircraft carrier smaller than the standard carriers of a navy. The precise definition of the type varies by country; light carriers typically have a complement of aircraft only one-half to two-thirds the size of a full-sized fleet carrier. A light carrier was similar in concept to an escort carrier in most respects; however, light carriers were intended for higher speeds to be deployed alongside fleet carriers, while escort carriers were typically relatively slow and usually defended equally slow convoys, as well as providing air support during amphibious operations.
HMS Centaur was the first of the four Centaur-class light fleet carriers of the Royal Navy. She was the only ship of her class to be completed with the original design configuration of a straight axial flight deck, rather than the newly invented angled flight decks of her three later sister ships. She was laid down in 1944 in Belfast, with the contract being awarded to Harland and Wolff, but not launched until 22 April 1947 due to delays relating to the end of the war. She was commissioned on 1 September 1953, almost nine years from when she was laid down in 1944.
INS Viraat was a Centaur-class light aircraft carrier of the Indian Navy. INS Viraat was the flagship of the Indian Navy until INS Vikramaditya was commissioned in 2013. The ship was completed and commissioned in 1959 as the Royal Navy's HMS Hermes, and decommissioned in 1984. It was sold to India in 1987. INS Viraat was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 12 May 1987, and served for almost 30 years.
HMS Illustrious was a light aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and the second of three Invincible-class ships constructed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was the fifth warship and second aircraft carrier to bear the name Illustrious, and was affectionately known to her crew as "Lusty". In 1982, the conflict in the Falklands necessitated that Illustrious be completed and rushed south to join her sister ship HMS Invincible and the veteran carrier HMS Hermes. To this end, she was brought forward by three months for completion at Swan Hunter Shipyard, then commissioned on 20 June 1982 at sea en route to Portsmouth Dockyard to take on board extra stores and crew. She arrived in the Falklands to relieve Invincible on 28 August 1982 in a steam past. Returning to the United Kingdom, she was not formally commissioned into the fleet until 20 March 1983. After her South Atlantic deployment, she was deployed on Operation Southern Watch in Iraq, then Operation Deny Flight in Bosnia during the 1990s and Operation Palliser in Sierra Leone in 2000. An extensive re-fit during 2002 prevented her from involvement in the 2003 Iraq War, but she was returned to service in time to assist British citizens trapped by the 2006 Lebanon War.
HMS Ark Royal (R09) was an Audacious-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy and, when she was decommissioned in 1979, was the Royal Navy's last remaining conventional catapult and arrested-landing aircraft carrier. She was the first aircraft carrier to be equipped with an angled flight deck at its commissioning; her sister ship, HMS Eagle, was the Royal Navy's first angle-decked aircraft carrier after modification in 1954. Ark Royal was the only non-United States vessel to operate the McDonnell Douglas Phantom at sea.
The Centaur class aircraft carrier was the final iteration of the 1942 Design Light Fleet Carrier developed by the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy during the Second World War. They were designed in 1943 to operate higher-performance aircraft than the preceding Majestic-class aircraft carrier. Four ships were laid down in 1944-1945 and completed in 1953-1959. Rapid developments in carrier warfare and technology overtook the ships even as they were under construction, and the associated costs of modernization led to ships being completed to different specifications. Only the last ship, HMS Hermes (R12), was fitted as a modern fixed-wing carrier; she was also the last of the class to retire in 2017 as INS Viraat.
The sixth HMS Bulwark of the Royal Navy was a 22,000 ton Centaur-class light fleet aircraft carrier. Initially commissioned as a light aircraft carrier in 1954, the ship was converted into a commando carrier in 1958 and recommissioned as such in 1960. Bulwark remained in this capacity until 1979 following failed efforts to sell the ship, Bulwark re-entered service as an anti-submarine warfare carrier and remained as such until being decommissioned in 1981. The ship was scrapped in 1984.
HMS Bristol (D23) was a Type 82 destroyer, the only vessel of her class to be built for the Royal Navy. Bristol was intended to be the first of a class of large destroyers to escort the CVA-01 aircraft carriers projected to come into service in the early 1970s but the rest of the class and the CVA-01 carriers were cancelled as a result of the 1966 Defence White Paper which cut defence spending.
ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (V-2) was an aircraft carrier in the Argentine Navy from 1969 to 1997. The English translation of the name is Twenty-fifth of May, which is the date of Argentina's May Revolution in 1810.
CVA-01 was a proposed United Kingdom aircraft carrier, designed during the 1960s. The ship was intended to be the first of a class that would replace all of the Royal Navy's carriers, most of which had been designed before or during the Second World War. CVA-01 and CVA-02 were intended to replace HMS Victorious and HMS Ark Royal, while CVA-03 and CVA-04 would have replaced HMS Hermes and HMS Eagle respectively.
Landing platform helicopter (LPH) is a term used by some navies to denote a type of amphibious warfare ship designed primarily to operate as a launch and recovery platform for helicopters and other VTOL aircraft. As such, they are considered a type of helicopter carrier.
The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval short take-off and vertical landing/vertical take-off and landing jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft. It is the second member of the Harrier family developed. It first entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980 as the Sea Harrier FRS1 and became informally known as the "Shar". Unusual in an era in which most naval and land-based air superiority fighters were large and supersonic, the principal role of the subsonic Sea Harrier was to provide air defence for Royal Navy task groups centred around the aircraft carriers.
800 Naval Air Squadron was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier-based squadron formed on 3 April 1933 by amalgamating No's 402 and 404 Flights.
801 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) was a Fleet Air Arm squadron of the Royal Navy formed in 1933 which fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Falklands War.
820 Naval Air Squadron is a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm carrier-based squadron flying the AgustaWestland Merlin HM2 in Anti-Submarine and Airborne Early Warning (AEW) roles from RNAS Culdrose.
899 Naval Air Squadron was a squadron of the Fleet Air Arm of the United Kingdom.