World's longest-serving warship INS Viraat to be dismantled at Alang

Alang, Aug 25: Indian Naval Ship Viraat, the Guinness record holder for being the longest-serving warship of the world, will arrive at Alang Ship Breaking yard in the first week of September where it will be broken and sold as scrap.

 

 

 

It served the Indian Navy as its leading warship for 30 years. It is the longest-serving warship in the world. It was first commissioned as HMS Hermes by the British Royal Navy in 1959. It was deployed for peacekeeping missions to Sri Lanka in 1988 and Kargil War in 1999.

 

The ship that could carry 24 aircraft, including fighter jets and helicopters, clocked more than 22,622 flying hours and spent 2,252 days at sea sailing 5.88 lakh nautical miles, which is almost equivalent to covering the globe 27 times.

 

Earlier, several state governments had proposed to buy it and set up a naval museum, but nothing materialized for three years. The warship was decommissioned in 2017 and was bought by Gujarat-based shipping firm Shri Ram Shipping after the Union government decided to scrap it. It was bought for Rs 26 crore in an e-auction.