The HMS Invincible Aircraft Carrier
After a glorious 32 years of service in the Royal Navy, the Aircraft Carrier HMS Invincible has been put up for sale on the Disposal Service Authority website listed among old Defence Force equipment, camo pants and ammo boxes. The Ministry of Defense expects to raise £2 million ($3.1 million) through its sale on edisposals, a government equivalent of eBay. The 17,000 ton vessel served in the Royal Navy from 1973 to 2005, and took part in the Falklands, Balkans and Iraq wars before being decommissioned in 2005.
In its heyday the ship was powered by four Rolls-Royce gas turbine engines (which is now being used to power other ships in the fleet), could reach a top speed of 28 knots, and had a range of 7,000 nautical miles. It was equipped with up 18 Sea Harrier, four Sea King helicopters and had a ships compliment of 1,050.
The majestic ship was built at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Ship Building and Engineering and cost a little over a quarter billion dollars. Her hull was laid down in 1973 and she joined the fleet on 3rd May 1977. The HMS Invincible was due to be sold to the Australian navy for £175 million in 1982 but the deal fell through after the Falklands War broke out.
Of her total weight of 17,000 tons, 10,000 is composed of metal which makes her attractive on the scrap market. Leavesley International said they are interested in using the ship for its scrap metal. The company’s operations manager Stuart Halsley said: I haven’t made any decision. I’m still pricing it up at the moment. There’s certainly a lot of ship there but anybody looking at doing the job needs to look at the associated costs involved.”
Sadly, the HMS Invincible Airca\raft Carrier has received no bids yet, but if You interested you can buy this used carrier at the edisposals.com. Just click on Add to Cart.
The HMS Invincible Aircraft Carrier
