Royal Navy flagship HMS Ark Royal is to returned to its home port yesterday for the final time before it is axed as part of the British government’s defence cuts.
The aircraft carrier arrived at Portsmouth Naval Base, Hampshire, following a farewell tour of the UK including Tyneside and Clyde, Scotland, where it had its ammunition removed.
En route, four Harrier GR9 pilots took off from the deck of Ark Royal for the last time, as the jump jet is also being taken out of service. Last month, the Queen made a farewell visit to the ship at Portsmouth at an event held to mark the ship’s 25th anniversary in service.
The government decision to decommission the Ark Royal three years early and also cut the Harrier force has been criticised by several retired Royal Navy admirals including Admiral Lord West of Spithead.
In a letter to The Times, Lord West – a former Labour security minister – wrote: “What is certain is that to fail to stand by the US, when they have supported us in Europe over some 70 years, would be a mistake.
“The dispatch of a carrier, its small air wing and a Tactom-armed nuclear submarine, should any such crisis escalate, is just the sort of commitment an ally such as the United States requires. Nothing else in our military inventory has similar flexibility and ‘adaptability’.
“What will be the next strategic shock? I cannot predict it – nor can the government. To lose our maritime strike capability in such dangerous times is short-sighted.”
The Ark Royal is set to be formally decommissioned next month with a farewell parade being held in Portsmouth to allow the city’s residents to give the ship and its crew a final send-off.
The aircraft carrier is the fifth Ark Royal. The first saw battle in 1588 and smashed the Spanish Armada.
The latest, and possibly last, saw active service in the Balkans and the second Gulf War.
It will be replaced by the Queen Elizabeth class of aircraft carrier, which will not come into service until the end of the decade. They will carry F35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft.
Factbox
• HMS Ark Royal is the fifth ship of the Royal Navy named in honour of the flagship of the English fleet that defeated the Spanish Armada.
• It was launched in June 1981, sponsored by Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother.
• It has a length of 210 metres and a displacement of 22,000 tons. It can carry 685 crew members and 22 aircrafts.
• Deployed in 1993 to the Adriatic during the Bosnian War. She sailed to the Persian Gulf for the 2003 Invasion of Iraq in 2003
• Celebrated 25 years in service earlier this year.
• Was built at Swan Hunter’s dockyard in Newcastle. Construction on the hull began in 1978.
• Entered service on July 1, 1985 and was commissioned in the presence of the Queen Mother four months later.
• The construction cost was £320 million but the ship was delivered by Swan Hunter four and a half months ahead of schedule, with some mid-build alterations having been made due to lessons learned from the Falklands conflict.
• Ark Royal - motto “Zeal Does Not Rest” – is the fifth ship to bear the name.
• Originally built for Sir Walter Raleigh, it became the flagship of the English fleet which defeated the Spanish Armada in 1588.
• The third Ark Royal took part in the sinking of the Bismarck, a German battleship, and one of the most famous warships of the World War II. The lead ship of her class, named after the 19th century German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Bismarck displaced more than 50,000 tonnes fully loaded and was the largest warship then commissioned
• Ark Royal IV was the subject of a well-known documentary, Sailor, in 1978 on BBC Television, about life onboard HMS Ark Royal. Rod Stewart’s song I Am Sailing was used as the title theme tune for the series.
• The current Ark Royal helped bring peace to Bosnia in 1993/94 and, following an extensive refit and upgrade in the late 1990s, took part in the second Gulf War in 2003.