A view of the aircraft carrier INS Viraat docked at the Naval Dockyard ahead of its decommissioning after 30 years of service in Mumbai on Monday. PTI photo

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, February 27

INS Viraat, India’s second aircraft carrier after INS Vikrant, will be decommissioned on March 6 after serving the Indian Navy for nearly 30 years.

As part of her final duties, the warship that first saw action as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka in 1989, was thrown open to the media on Monday.

Originally christened HMS Hermes, INS Viraat served the British Royal Navy from 1959 to 1984 before she was decommissioned and sold to India. According to naval officials here, as HMS Hermes, the aircraft carrier saw action in the Falklands War between Great Britain and Argentina. Under her new name and flag, INS Viraat was commissioned into the Indian Navy on May 12, 1987.
The ageing warship sailed under her own power for the last time from Mumbai to Kochi in July 2016. Last October she was towed out of Kochi and brought back to Mumbai where she will be formally decommissioned on March 6, according to the Indian Navy.

According to an official statement, INS Viraat was deployed for operational duties for the last time at the International Fleet Review in Viskhakapatnam in February last year.