HMS Hermes (R12)

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Career

Ordered:
Laid down:	21 June 1944
Launched:	16 February 1953
Commissioned:	25 November 1959
Struck:	1985
Fate:	Sold to India in 1986
General Characteristics
Displacement:	23000 t
Length:	236.14 m
Beam:	45.10 m
Draught:	8.48 m
Propulsion:	2 Parson turbines, 76,000 shp (57 MW)
Speed:	28 knots (52 km/h)
Range:
Complement:	2,100
Armament:	10 × 40 mm Bofors
Aircraft:	up to 28 Sea Harriers
Motto:

The second HMS Hermes (R12) was a Centaur-class aircraft carrier, the last of the postwar conventional aircraft carriers commissioned into the Royal Navy.

She was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness during WW II as 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 Hermes after extensive modifications. She was redesignated as a commando carrier in 1971 and then as a V/STOL carrier.

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 quickly refitted and made the flagship of the British forces. Hermes carried BAe Sea Harrier FRS.Mk.1 jets of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, Harrier GR.Mk.3 jets of the Royal Air Force, as well as a troop of Special Air Service (SAS) and Royal Marines.

She served with the Royal Navy until 12 April 1984. She was stricken in 1985 and in April 1986 she was refitted and sold to India and recommissioned as the INS Viraat in 1989.

Between 1983 and 1992, Hermes was featured in the opening titles of the ITV/TV-AM programme Good Morning Britain.

See HMS Hermes for other Navy ships of the same name.