Carriers of the Falklands War
Laid
down in 1944, the Hermes was the Flagship of the Falklands Task Force,
and was of Centaur class. She was equipped with an angled flight deck and
in 1971, reequipped as a commando carrier and then an interim V/STOL carrier.
Once the second Invincible class carrier entered service in 1986, she was
sold to the Indian Navy and is now then INS Viraat.
The
Invincible was designed as a 'through-deck cruiser', not an aircraft carrier.
Before the advent of the Sea Harrier, she was envisaged as a helicopter
carrier to fulfil the Royal navy's commitment to the Nato ASW role in the
north Atlantic and without the Sea Harrier would have been unable to take
part in the Falklands war, without catapults and a suitably large deck,
she could not operate conventional aircraft. Weighing in at 19,500 tons
she is a light carrier in all but name. The addition of the ski-jump ramp
gave the carrier the ability to operate the Sea Harrier with useful warloads.
Prior to the Falklands, the Government had already made up its mind to
sell the Invincible off, it changed its mind after the war.
|
|