INS Viraat to be decommissioned today: A 56-year voyage ends for Grand Old Lady

The world’s oldest serving aircraft carrier, INS Viraat, will be withdrawn from service on Monday, ending a 56-year-long sea odyssey that saw the British-build ship serve two countries and sail a distance that would have taken it around the globe 27 times.

The decommissioning ceremony at the Mumbai dockyard will be attended by India’s chief of naval staff S Lamba and the British Royal Navy’s 1st Sea Lord, admiral Sir Phillip Jones.

The ship will be dismantled in four months if there are no buyers, NDTV quoted the navy chief as saying ahead of the decommissioning ceremony at 5.45 pm.

Reports said talks are on with the Andhra Pradesh government which has expressed interest in taking in the ship.

The gala event will see the lowering and wrap-up of the naval flag installed on the warship at sunset.

Referred to as the ‘Grand Old Lady’ in the naval community, Viraat was completed and commissioned in 1959 in the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom as HMS Hermes.

It was decommissioned in 1984 and subsequently commissioned in the Indian Navy on May 12, 1987.

Aircraft like Sea Harriers, White Tigers, Seaking 42B, Seaking 42C and Chetak helicopters have operated from the warship.

The Sea Harrier fleet was recently decommissioned in Goa in May 2016.