HMAS Melbourne (R21)

History

HMAS Melbourne (R21) was the last aircraft carrier to serve with the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She joined HMAS Sydney and HMAS Vengeance in starring roles and appeared as the group's third-place finisher - Sydney retired in 1958 and Vengeance retired in 1955.

HMAS Melbourne was originally laid out on 15 April 1943 as a light carrier for the Royal Navy during World War I and launched in February 1945 as the HMS Majestic (R77). Unnecessary in the major military retreat after the war (the war ended in September 1945), she was sold to the Australian Government (under the name HMAS Majestic) and recommissioned as HMAS Melbourne on 28 October 1955.

Her pennant is numbered R21 and sails under the motto "Vires Acquint Eundo" - meaning "she gathers strength as she walks". She was part of the "new" post-war Royal Australian Navy during the Cold War decades.

The Australian Navy purchased the ship in 1947 and before she was delivered, it was decided to modernize various facilities according to her design. This includes installing a sloping port flight deck and improving living conditions. The island's superstructure remains on starboard, while the bow and stern parts of the deck are bare. Two hangar lifts - one forward amidships and one forward aft - provide the necessary access to the hangar deck below. Her flight deck allows two aircraft to take off from the bow at the same time, and her cargo hold can carry up to 27 aircraft in fixed-wing and rotary-wing configurations - although only 24 aircraft were initially carried.

HMAS Melbourne eventually operated the Australian 805th, 808th, 816th and 817th Squadrons between 1958 and 1982 - a mix of aircraft from de Havilland Sea Venoms and McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawks to Fairey Gannets, Grumman S-2 Trackers, Westland Aircraft Wessex Helicopter and Westland Sea King Helicopter.

Her propulsion system is traditional in nature and entirely British in her design. It consists of 4 Admiralty three-barrel boilers and 2 Parsons turbines with single reduction gears outputting 40,000 shaft horsepower on two shafts. The maximum speed is 24 knots and the range is 12,000 nautical miles.

The crew of 1,350 people, of which 350 make up the Luftwaffe. She was also equipped with modern radar, communications and navigation equipment throughout her ocean-going career.

Her armament consisted of 25 x 40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft guns (AA) at the time of construction, mounted on six twin gun mounts and another 13 single gun mounts - all of which were used for local defense as this Ships are expected to support RAN ships at sea through a wider range of defenses. The weapon was eventually reduced to 21 from 1959 to 1968, and to 12 by 1980.

From 1980 to 1982, she used only four of these weapons.

The work proved protracted and the ship was not offered to the RAN for operational service until it was commissioned in 1955. She never saw direct combat action, but supported some operations related to the 1963-1966 Malaysia-India War. It was also available during the Vietnam War (1955-1975), but not in theaters. Her career was marred by collisions with two friendly ships in February 1964the HMAS Voyager and the USS Frank Evans in June 1969that killed 82 and 74, respectively.

A shadow was cast.

Decommissioned on 30 May 1982, several attempts to save its hull for other missions failed. She was then sold to China for scrap, although China was willing to use the exposure as a hands-on experience for her engineers for a possible future Chinese naval aircraft carrier. This effort culminated in 2012 as Liaoning (16), based on the hull of the Admiral Kuznetsov-class Riga (later renamed Varyag) acquired during the Soviet era.

HMAS Melbourne was eventually abandoned by the Chinese - although some sources believe this was not the case until 2002.

The Australian Navy plans to buy HMS Invincible from the Royal Navy as Melbourne's immediate successor, although the deal was derailed by events such as the 1982 Falklands War between Britain and Argentina. To this end, HMAS Melbourne was not replaced, ending Australia's use of the carrier.

Specification

Basic

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Performance

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