HMS Hermes returning to Portsmouth after action in the South Atlantic |
|
| Career (United Kingdom) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Hermes |
| Builder: | Vickers-Armstrong |
| Laid down: | 21 June 1944 |
| Launched: | 16 February 1953 |
| Commissioned: | 25 November 1959 |
| Decommissioned: | 1984 |
| Struck: | 1985 |
| Homeport: | HMNB Portsmouth |
| Identification: | Pennant number: R12 |
| Fate: | Sold to India in 1986 and renamed INS Viraat |
| Career (India) | |
| Name: | INS Viraat |
| Acquired: | May 1987 |
| Decommissioned: | 2020 (expected)[1] |
| Identification: | Pennant number: R22 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 23,000 tonnes standard 2; 28,000 tonnes full load |
| Length: | 236.14 m (774 ft 9 in) |
| Beam: | 45.10 m (148 ft 0 in) |
| Draught: | 27.8 ft (8.5 m) |
| Propulsion: | 2 Parson turbines, 76,000 shp (57 MW) |
| Speed: | 28 knots (52 km/h) |
| Range: | 7,000 nautical miles at 18 knots (13,000 km at 33 km/h) |
| Complement: | 2,100 |
| Armament: | 10 × 40 mm Bofors |
| Aircraft carried: | Up to 1970:12 Sea Vixens, 7 Buccaneers, 5 Gannets and 6 Wessex After 1980: up to 28 Sea Harriers |
HMS Hermes was a Centaur-class British aircraft carrier, the last of the postwar conventional aircraft carriers commissioned into the Royal Navy.
Contents |
She was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness during WW 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, when she entered service on 18 November 1959 as HMS Hermes after extensive modifications which included installation of a massive Type 984 'searchlight' 3D radar.
Hermes cost £18 million,[2] with another £1 million for electronic equipment [2] and £10 million for aircraft in 1959.[2]
Civil Lord of the Admiralty John Hay (British politician) testified in the 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."[3]
A 1966 review indicating that Hermes was surplus to operational requirements and was offered to the Royal Australian Navy 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 Skyhawks and Trackers practiced landings on the larger carrier.[4] 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 area until 1970. She could have seen action against the Egyptians when Egypt closed off the Strait of Tiran to Israeli shipping in May 1967. when the UK and US contemplated forming an international fleet to open the strait with force if necessary,[5] but the idea never materialised.
The final CATOBAR air wing in 1968-1970 consisted of:[6]
She was refitted at Portsmouth from 1980 to June 1981, during which a 12-degree ski-jump and facilities for operating Sea Harriers were added. After this refit the air wing comprised:
Hermes was due to be decommissioned in 1982 after a defence review 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 jets of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and 18 Sea Kings. A few weeks after sailing, more aircraft were flown or transported via other ships to replace some losses and augment the task force. Hermes airgroup grew to 16 Sea Harriers, 10 GR3 Harriers 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 close into the Falklands, due to the possibility of Argentinian AF attacks. Her Harriers therefore operated at the limit of their endurance radius, but were very successful in keeping the enemy aircraft at bay.
After her return home from the Falklands conflict Hermes entered into a much needed 4-month refit until November 1982. 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 returned to the UK for a minor refit and into maintain reserve in February 1984.
In 1983, when the proposed sale of HMS 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.[7]
Hermes served with the Royal Navy until 12 April 1984. She was paid off in 1985.
In April 1986 Hermes was refitted and sold to India and recommissioned as the INS Viraat in 1989.
Her 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. She 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 5 Harriers and 12 Sea King helicopters, though she had the capacity for up to a total of 37 aircraft.
|
|||||||||||