HMS Hermes (R12)
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HMS Hermes returning to Portsmouth after action in the South Atlantic
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| 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: 61 (1945) R12 (1951) R22 (as Viraat) |
| Fate: | Sold to India in 1986 and renamed INS Viraat |
 India
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| Name: | INS Viraat |
| Acquired: | May 1987 |
| Decommissioned: | 6th March 2017 |
| Identification: | Pennant number: R22 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Centaur-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: | 23,000 tonnes standard 2; 28,000 tonnes full load |
| Length: |
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| Beam: |
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| Draught: | 8.50 m (27 ft 11 in) |
| Propulsion: |
2 Parsons SR geared turbines, 76,000 shp (57 MW) 4 Admiralty 3-drum boilers |
| Speed: | 28 kn (52 km/h) |
| Range: | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km) at 18 kn (33 km/h) |
| Complement: | 2,100 |
| Armament: |
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| Aircraft carried: |
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2 Parsons SR geared turbines, 76,000 shp (57 MW)
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 2016.
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, 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, a fully angled deck with a deck-edge elevator, 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.
Hermes cost £18 million, with another £1 million for electronic equipment and £10 million for aircraft in 1959.
Civil Lord of the Admiralty John Hay 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." 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. While the Phantoms built for the RN were modified in ways similar to 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-4K's, even though they were slightly lighter, more economical and higher performing than their US Navy counterparts. The Phantom trials held on Hermes in 1969-70 proved this out, though in the views of Minister of Defence, Denis Healey, the carrier could operate the most modern aircraft, but in too small numbers to be effective. The MOD briefly considered F-8's, and then considered the A-4M Skyhawk around 1969; the French had successfully operated the F-8 from its two Clemenceau-class light fleet carriers (which, at 869 feet (265 m) were much larger than Hermes), while the A-4 had been selected by the Royal Australian Navy to operate from HMAS Melbourne. However, both the Crusader and the Skyhawk were already considered near-obsolete by the end of the 1960s. Nevertheless, the light A-4M Skyhawks would have allowed the Hermes to carry a viable late 1970s airgroup of 20 Skyhawks, 6 Sea Kings and 4 Gannet AEW aircraft..
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