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Reply To: Ark Royal to be scrapped.

Home Forums Naval Aviation Ark Royal to be scrapped. Reply To: Ark Royal to be scrapped.

#2012210
Bager1968
Participant

I wonder if it will be scrapped in Alang. They could use the money they’d get from dismantling another aircraft carrier.;)

No, she has been purchased by Leyal Ship Recycling of Turkey, and will ba scrapped in the same Turkish facility in Izmir that is scrapping HMS Invincible as we speak!
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/mod-confirms-ark-royal-to-be-scrapped-1-4244563

There is little reason for this choice (other than pure money), as there is a ship-scrapping industry in both Europe and the UK that is perfectly capable of handling her! In my opinion, the return to the UK in taxes, wages, and the economic boost from supporting the work and workers should have been taken into account (but wasn’t).

HMS Fearless (LPD) was scrapped in Ghent, Belgium by Van Heyghen Recycling from October 2007 onwards.

HMS Intrepid (LPD) was scrapped by Leavesley International in Liverpool, UK starting in September 2008*.

The French carrier Clemenceau has been scrapped by Able UK’s Teesside Environmental Reclamation & Recycling Centre, Graythorp, Hartlepool, commencing 19 November 2009 and completing by the end of 2010.

As Clem was longer, wider, and heavier than Ark Royal, there is no reason why Ark (or Invincible) should have had to leave the UK as anything other than loads of cut-up steel.

* Daily Mail article from January 2009 with photos