World’s longest-serving warship HMS Hermes decommissioned in India

The aircraft carrier that was HMS Hermes is bowing out after a glorious lifespan unsurpassed – she’s the longest serving warship in the world – reports ITV.

In the autumn she was taken to the Alang shipbreaker’s yard in Gujarat, India. Dismantling began a month ago and breaking her up completely is likely to take a year.

About five per cent of the ship is already gone. The famous take off ramp used by the Harrier jump jets has been removed.

Hermes’ keel was laid down in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in 1944.

The end of the Second World War meant a delay in construction and it wasn’t until 1953 that she was launched, and even then it was only to clear a slipway.

She wouldn’t join the Royal Navy until 1959, according to ITV.

After becoming the flagship of the UK Task Force sent to the South Atlantic during the Falklands War, she was sold to India in 1986. She was recommissioned into the Indian Navy as INS Viraat. The name means giant.

She was used by the Indian Navy for another 30 years before her decommissioning in 2017.