- INS Viraat, the Aircraft Carrier with the longest service in the world, commenced its towed final journey from Mumbai, to be broken at Alang in Gujarat and sold as scrap.
- Was decommissioned in 2017 after 30 years of service with Indian Navy and around 27 years prior to that in British Royal Navy.
- The ship was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS (Her Majesty’s Ship) Hermes in November 1959.
- The ship belonged to the Centaur class of light fleet carriers from the Royal Navy which were in use since World War II.
- It was part of the key formation of the British forces during the Falklands War against the Argentinian forces in 1982.
- HMS Hermes was decommissioned within three years after the war.
- The Indian Navy, which was at the time operating 1961-commissioned INS Vikrant, zeroed down on Hermes and announced its purchase in 1985-86.
- The ship underwent a major refit and modernisation before being commissioned into the Indian Navy in May 1987 as INS (Indian Naval Ship) Viraat, which means enormous.
- The ship’s Motto was the Sanskrit phrase ‘Jalamev Yashya, Balamev Tasya’ which means ‘who controls the sea is the powerful’.
- It proved pivotal in Operation Jupiter in 1989 during the Sri Lankan Peacekeeping operation.
- The ship was also deployed during 2001-02 operation Operation Parakram following the terror attack on the Indian Parliament.
- INS Vikramaditya (previously Admiral Gorshkov), which is currently the sole aircraft carrier operated by Indian Navy.
- With mounting operating costs and age, the Navy announced the decision to decommission Viraat in early 2015.
- After the requisite pre-decommissioning processes at Kochi Shipyard, the ‘Grand Old Lady’ was decommissioned on March 6 in 2017, in a ceremony held at Mumbai.
- Since 2017, India has been operating a single carrier — INS Vikramaditya — as against the minimum essential operational requirement of having two Carrier Battle Groups — which are formations of ships and submarines with Aircraft Carriers at the lead role.
- India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC-I) INS Vikrant which has a displacement comparable to Vikramaditya is under construction at Kochi Shipyard and is soon expected to undergo sea trials.
