Deadline passes for Ark Royal sale

The deadline has passed for bids to purchase the Royal Navy’s former flagship HMS Ark Royal which was put up for sale after it was axed by the government in last year’s Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The aircraft carrier had been advertised on the MoD auction website edisposals.com since shortly after it was decommissioned in March.

The sale, organised by the Defence Equipment & Support agency, was originally due to finish last month but was extended until yesterday because of the amount of interest.

A DE&S spokesman said that all the bids would be assessed prior to the winner being chosen.

He said: “It will take a couple of months because there has been quite a lot of interest which led to the deadline being extended from last month.

“A committee will sit down and review the bids, they will go into a lot of detail to see which bids meet the necessary criteria.

“It is quite a technical process and then a preferred bidder will be chosen to take the purchase forward.”

Although the Ark Royal, which is at Portsmouth Naval Base, Hampshire, could be sold for its scrap metal, other proposals for it include a commercial heliport in London as well as a base for special forces to provide security at next year’s Olympic Games. And a move could be made to turn it into a nightclub and school in China.

Other reported plans for the ship include a casino in Hong Kong or to sink it as a dive wreck off the UK south coast. The sale of Ark Royal follows that of its sister ship HMS Invincible which was towed away to a scrapyard in Turkey after being sold on the same internet site.

The website edisposals.com is run by the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) arm of the MoD which has a budget of £14 billion to equip the UK’s armed forces.

An MoD spokesman added: “We will ensure that the chosen bidder offers a good financial return for the taxpayer.”