Wikipedia

ARAVeinticinco de Mayo(V-2)

For other ships with the same name, seeARA Veinticinco de Mayo,HNLMS Karel Doorman,andHMS Venerable.

ARAVeinticinco de Mayo(V-2) was anaircraft carrierin theArgentine Navyfrom 1969 to 1997. TheEnglishtranslation of the name isTwenty-fifth of May,which is the date ofArgentina'sMay Revolutionin 1810.

Veinticinco de Mayo
History
United Kingdom
NameVenerable
Ordered7 August 1942
BuilderCammell Laird
Yard number1126
Laid down3 December 1942
Launched30 December 1943
Commissioned27 November 1944
DecommissionedApril 1947
IdentificationPennant number:R63
FateSold to the Netherlands, 1 April 1948
Netherlands
NameKarel Doorman
NamesakeKarel Doorman
Acquired1 April 1948
Commissioned28 May 1948
Decommissioned29 April 1968
Refit
  • 1955–1958
  • 1965–1966
IdentificationPennant number: R81
FateSold to Argentina, 15 October 1968
Argentina
NameVeinticinco de Mayo
Namesake25 May, date of theMay Revolution
Acquired15 October 1968
Commissioned12 March 1969
Decommissioned1997
Out of serviceInoperable by 1990
Refit1969
HomeportPuerto Belgrano
FateProvided spare parts forBrazilian aircraft carrierMinas Geraisand remainder was scrapped inAlang,Indiain 2000
General characteristics
Class and typeColossus-class aircraft carrier
Displacement19,900 tons
Length192 m (629 ft 11 in)
Beam24.4 m (80 ft 1 in)
Draught7.5 m (24 ft 7 in)
Propulsion
  • 4 boilers with steam turbines
  • 2 shafts
  • 40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Speed24 knots (44 km/h)
Complement1,300
Armament12 × 40 mm AA guns
Aircraft carried21

The ship previously served in theRoyal NavyasHMSVenerableand theRoyal Netherlands NavyasHNLMSKarel Doorman.She was deployed south during theBeagle Crisisin 1978 and in the first weeks of theFalklands War(Spanish:Guerra de las Malvinas), where her aircraft were deployed against the Royal Navy task force, but spent the bulk of the war in port.[1]

History

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ARAVeinticinco de Mayobadge with the motto "Juramos con gloria morir" which means "We swear to die gloriously", a reference to theArgentine National Anthem.

The ship was built for the Royal Navy byCammell LairdinBirkenhead,England during theSecond World War.[2]As aColossus-classaircraft carrier, she was namedHMSVenerableand saw service in theBritish Pacific Fleet.Venerableonly served three years in the Royal Navy before being sold to the Netherlands asHNLMSKarel Doorman.

After a boiler room fire, the carrier was rebuilt, sold to Argentina, and renamedVeinticinco de Mayo.[2]TheArgentine Navyalready operated a carrier,ARAIndependenciaThis ship was also a former Royal NavyColossusclass; however,Independencia's catapult was not powerful enough to launch jet aircraft,[3]whileVeinticinco de Mayohad had a much more powerful catapult fitted during the Dutch rebuild.Independenciawas decommissioned in 1970, leavingVeinticinco de Mayoas the sole remaining carrier in the Argentine fleet. She could carry up to 24 aircraft.

The air group started withF9F PanthersandF9F Cougarjets and later these were replaced withA-4Q Skyhawkssupported byS-2 Trackeranti-submarine warfareaircraft andSikorsky Sea Kinghelicopters.

In September 1969, during the voyage of the recently boughtVeinticinco de Mayofrom the Netherlands,Hawker Siddeleydemonstrated theirHarrier GR.1on board the carrier for a possible sale to the Argentine Navy.

A-4Q landing onVeinticinco de Mayo,circa 1982

During the 1970s the ship was refitted and updated several times, though in each case the duration of each repair period was never more than 3–5 months, allowing her to be available to deploy. Her last pre-Falklands refit occurred during 1981, when she received an update to her radar, arresting gear, steam catapult and (most noticeably) the forward edge of the port side angled deck was filled out via an enlargedsponson.These improvements would theoretically enable her to operate theSuper Etendardstrike aircraft purchased from France, but it was discovered during testing that the catapult had difficulties launching the aircraft type. As a result, her strike airwing was limited to the A-4Q Skyhawks.

Beagle Conflict

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Veinticinco de Mayo,between 1978 and 1980
Main article:Operation Soberanía

During Operation Soberanía,Veinticinco de Mayowas planned to support the invasion of thePicton, Nueva and Lennoxislands.[citation needed]

Falklands War

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S-2G Tracker taking off fromVeinticinco de Mayo

During theFalklands War,Veinticinco de Mayowas used in support of theinitial Argentine landingson the Falklands.[4]On the day of the invasion, she waited with 1500 army soldiers outside Stanley harbour as the first submarine and boat-landed commandos secured landing areas and then Argentine marines made the main amphibious landing. Her aircraft were not used during the invasion.[5] Later, in defence of the occupation, she was deployed in a task force north of theFalkland Islands,with the cruiserARAGeneral Belgranoto the south. The British had assignedHMSSplendid(S106),[6]a nuclear-powered submarine, to track downVeinticinco de Mayoand sink her if necessary. Rear AdmiralSandy Woodward,commanding the British task force fromHMSHermesstated in his bookOne Hundred Daysthat, hadSplendidlocated the carrier, he would have "Recommended in the strongest possible terms to the Commander-in-ChiefAdmiral Sir John Fieldhousethat we take them both out this night ".[7]

Following the outbreak of hostilities on 1 May 1982, the Argentine carrier planned an attack on theRoyal Navy Task Force.Veinticinco de Mayo'sS-2 Trackersdetected the British fleet late that day, and a strike by all eightA-4Q Skyhawkjets was prepared, scheduled to take-off at dawn. The attack did not take place, because subsequent Tracker sorties had failed to relocate the British fleet.[8]After the British nuclear-powered submarineHMSConquerorsankGeneral Belgrano,Veinticinco de Mayoreturned to port.[9]The naval A-4Q Skyhawks flew the rest of the war from the airbase inRío Grande, Tierra del Fuego.

Disposal

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In 1983,Veinticinco de Mayowas modified to carry the Super Étendard,[10]and her British-built CAAIS combat data system was replaced by a Dutch SEWACO system, which was compatible with the Argentine Navy's newAlmirante Brown-classdestroyers.From 1986, problems in her engines largely confined her to port; rendering her unserviceable.[11]

Work began in 1988 to refit the carrier, with it being planned to replace her steam turbines withgas turbines,while providing an auxiliary steam plant to power the ship'ssteam catapults.By 1994, the ship's machinery had been removed, but a shortage of funds led to work stopping.[11][12]In December 1996, the Argentine Navy announced thatVeinticinco de Mayowould be discarded.[13]By this time, she had already been stripped of various major pieces of equipment, which were used as spares for the Brazilian carrierMinas Gerais,anotherColossus-class ship which had been heavily modified in the Netherlands.[14]Finally, in 2000, she was towed toAlang,India for scrapping.[12]

AlthoughMinas Geraiswas offered to the Argentine Navy in 2000 as a replacement, she was rejected due to her poor condition and high restoration and maintenance costs. As of the 2020s, theArgentine Naval Aviationhas lost the use of carrier-capable fixed-wing aircraft. While five refurbished Super Étendard aircraft were delivered to the Navy from France in 2019, these aircraft were missing key spare parts and therefore remained unserviceable.[15]In 2021, it was reported that the return of these aircraft to an operational configuration was also encountering problems as the ejector seats of the aircraft were the MK6, manufactured by British firmMartin-Baker.[16][17]

See also

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References

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Notes

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  1. ^"The Falkland Islands – A history of the 1982 conflict".RAF.Archived fromthe originalon 21 September 2008.
  2. ^abIreland, p. 147
  3. ^Polmar, Norman (April 2008)."Historic Aircraft-The Navy's Frontline in Korea".Naval History Magazine.Vol. 22, no. 2. U.S. Naval Institute.
  4. ^"25 de Mayo".www.globalsecurity.org.Archived fromthe originalon 24 April 2005.
  5. ^"The Falkland Islands Conflict, 1982: Air Defense Of The Fleet".www.globalsecurity.org.
  6. ^Lawrence Freedman (2005).The Official History of the Falklands Campaign: War and diplomacy.Psychology Press. p. 267.ISBN978-0-7146-5207-8.
  7. ^AdmiralSandy WoodwardOne Hundred Days, pages 207 and 208.ISBN978-0-00-713467-0
  8. ^Burdenet al1986, pp. 39–40, 49–50
  9. ^Burdenet al1986, p. 50
  10. ^Moore 1985, p. 11
  11. ^abGardiner and Chumbley 1995, p. 6
  12. ^abHobbs 2013, p. 195
  13. ^Baker 1998, p. 7.
  14. ^"History of the Colossus class carrier Minas Gerais (Ex HMS Vengeance)".2002. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  15. ^"Los Super Étendard argentinos estarían operativos en dos años"(in Spanish). Noticias Infodefensa América. 10 June 2020.
  16. ^"Argentine Air Force faces another hurdle for its re-equipment plans".26 May 2021.
  17. ^"Argentina busca repuestos para los asientos eyectables de los Super Étendard Modernisé"(in Spanish). Noticias Infodefensa América. 5 July 2021.

Bibliography

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  • Baker, A. D. III, ed. (1998).The Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World 1998–1999.Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press.ISBN1-55750-111-4.
  • Burden, Rodney A.; Draper, Michael I.; Rough, Douglas A.; Smith, Colin R.; Wilton, David (1986).Falklands: The Air War.British Aviation Research Group.ISBN0-906339-05-7.
  • Gardiner, Robert; Chumbley, Stephen, eds. (1995).Conway's All The World's Fighting Ships 1947–1995.Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press.ISBN1-55750-132-7.
  • Hobbs, David (2013).British Aircraft Carriers: Design, Development and Service Histories.Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing.ISBN978-1-84832-138-0.
  • Ireland, Bernard (2007).The Illustrated Guide to Aircraft Carriers of the World.London: Anness Publishing Limited, Hermes House. p. 147.ISBN978-1-84477-747-1.
  • Moore, John, ed. (1985).Jane's Fighting Ships 1985–86.London: Jane's Yearbooks.ISBN0-7106-0814-4.

Further reading

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