“Last Call” (1965) with HMS Bulwark and the Far East Fleet on Exercise Dark Night

Feature length documentary (61 minutes) demonstrating a Royal Navy and Royal Marines exercise in the Far East. Filmed during 1964/65 and based on Exercise ‘Dark Night.’

With 40 Commando, 42 Commando, and 845 NAS aboard the commando carrier HMS Bulwark (R08). The “Rusty B” was deployed East of Suez with the Royal Navy’s Far East Fleet throughout the 1960s and served during the Konfrontasi with Indonesia.

Also features strike carriers HMS Victorious (R38), HMS Eagle (R05), and the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne (R21). Aircraft include the De Havilland Sea Vixen and the Blackburn Buccaneer.

Also the (new for 1964/5) County-class guided missile destroyers HMS Kent (D12) and HMS London (D16). Additional escorts include Battle-class destroyers HMS Barrosa (D68) and HMS Corruna (D97), C-class destroyer HMS Caesar (D07), Type 61 aircraft direction frigate HMS Lincoln (F99), Australian destroyer escort HMAS Derwent (DE49), New Zealand frigate HMNZS Otago (F111), and Type 15 frigate HMS Zest (F102).

Ships of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary include the replenishment oilers RFA Tidepool (A76), RFA Tidesurge (A98), and RFA Bayleaf (A79).

‘Hermes Joins Royal Navy’ (1959)

British Pathe b&w newsreel of Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (R12) joining the fleet in November 1959.

HMS Hermes joins the Royal Navy, 1959 newsreel from British Pathé

British Pathé newsreel of Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes from 1959.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes off Aden, 1967

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes (R12) off Aden, 1967. Photo credit: Brian Harrington Spier (via flickr.com).

India launches first “Indigenous Aircraft Carrier”

Currently, India relies on its 1940s-vintage aircraft carrier the INS Viraat (ex HMS Hermes) . that will remain in service until at least 2018 (pos. 2020) when the INS Vikrant will be commissioned.

An additional aircraft carrier, the INS Vikramaditya (ex Soviet carrier Baku) is currently undergoing sea trials and aviation trials with a mixed Russian/Indian crew and is expected to be handed over in November 2013… ish… provided the date doesn’t slip… again.

A second Vikrant class aircraft carrier, provisionally named INS Vishal, is in the design stage, pending funding… and, more importantly, a decision on whether further ships in the class will be conventionally or nuclear powered.

The former INS Vikrant (ex HMS Hercules) was decommissioned from the Indian Navy in 1997 and is alongside as a ‘sometimes open, sometimes closed’ museum ship in Mumbai and may be sent for scrap if funds are not found for her continued preservation. That would be a shame, as she’s the only Second World War era British aircraft carrier that is preserved as a museum ship.

Indian-built aircraft carrier INS Vikrant launched

The INS Vikrant was launched amid chanting from ancient Hindu scriptures at the Kochi shipyard in the southern state of Kerala

India has unveiled its first home-built aircraft carrier from a shipyard in southern Kerala state.

The 37,500 tonne INS Vikrant is expected to go for extensive trials in 2016 before being inducted into the navy by 2018, reports say.

With this, India joins a select group of countries capable of building such a vessel.

Other countries capable of building a similar ship are the US, the UK, Russia and France.

Monday’s launch of INS Vikrant marks the end of the first phase of its construction.

The ship will be then re-docked for outfitting and further construction.

The ship, which will have a length of 260m (850ft) and a breadth of 60m, has been built at the shipyard in Cochin.

It was designed and manufactured locally, using high grade steel made by a state-owned steel company.

Vice-Admiral RK Dhowan of India’s navy has described the launch as the “crowning glory” of the navy’s programme to produce vessels on home soil.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-23662726

INS Viraat (HMS Hermes) to remain in service until 2018

An interesting rumour from the subcontinent:

Surprise! Navy says it will operate the INS Viraat till 2018 – hope the old lady can take it. The Harriers may not.

— Manu Pubby (@manupubby) August 1, 2013

Her keel was laid at Vickers (Barrow) on 21 June 1944. Think about that for a minute. Nineteen forty four. By 2018, that’s going to be 74-years. They certainly don’t build them like that any more!

INS Viraat, the oldest aircraft carrier in service anywhere in the world.

HMS Hermes, as she was during the Falklands War, 1982.