Everything You Wanted To Know About Hermes

It seems Hermes took as long to reach maturity as did her human crew. i. aid down in 1945, she wasn’t launched till 1953 and did not actually become operational till 1960. Hermes was originally equipped with Phantom interceptors, Gannet AEW and Buccaneer strike aircraft in addition to a small number of Wessex ASW helos. However, politics struck yet another blow to the British defence forces and her fixed-wing aircraft were transferred to the larger carriers of the RN fleet. Indeed, it was during the mid-sixties that the British government offered Hermes to Australia (again to replace Melbourne and Sydney, the latter having become a troop transport) but to no avail. Her sister ships, Bulwark, Albion and Centaur became accommodation/commando ships and were eventually scrapped. Hermes survived because she had always been the most reliable and best-built of the four.

With the advent of the Thatcher government and a revived enthusiasm for fixed-wing naval aviation Hermes was tasked for major refit and updating for future use as a STOVL (Short Takeoff, Vertical Landing) carrier embarking Sea King ASW helos and the new BAe Sea Harrier fighter. Hermes spent from 1977 through to 1981 in relit and the transformation proved more than cosmetic as evinced by her capabilities in the Falklands conflict where she served as the command centre for the Fleet.

Compared with Melbourne, Hermes is around 40% larger in tonnage, weighing in dry at 23,000 tonnes and around 27,000 tonnes fully loaded, though it is said that during the Falklands war she had operated at up to 31,000 tonnes. This would seem logical due to her large magazines and hangar deck which is far more spacious than the Invincible class ships. In peacetime, Hermes patrols with an air wing of live Sea Harriers and ten Sea Kings. During the Falklands war she embarked and operated 20 Sea Harriers and GR3 Harriers (RAF) and up to 15 Sea Kings. In addition to this combat growth potential, she can embark up to 1000 Marines. Another benefit over the Invincible is her 750 It long flight deck culminating in a full 12-degree ramp. Invincible has only a 7-degree ramp, as does Illustrious, while even Ark Royal will only have 9 degrees. The larger ramp plus the extra bulk of the ship itself made Hermes the aviator’s choice for combat in the Roaring Forties.

And not only the aviators preferred Hermes, due to the generations-apart design philosophies separating Invincible and Hermes you have two entirely different ship designs. As ably summed up in Brian Hanrahan and Robert Fox’s excellent book documenting the Falklands war: ‘The difference between Hermes and Invincible – Hermes is a brute of a ship to live on. It has doors everywhere, you were constantly brushing past them and squeezing through spaces. It (under these circumstances) is not designed for living in at all. It’s a very old-fashioned ship, laid down at the end of the last war in the days when ships were functioning objects and no one wasted much time in making them pretty. But it’s a tough ship, and everyone felt that, and the Captain certainly did, if it got hit, it was going to survive. Not only was it going to survive but it was going to fight. And he was working on the basis that, even if he got hit by an Exocet and he lost some of his crew and part of the ship, he was going to make that ship go on and be a viable aircraft carrier, capable of sustaining its role, which was to defend the rest of the Fleet. I know the captain of Invincible had precisely the same intention, but his ship is a newer ship. It has wide passageways, it has bulkheads that are farther apart, I don’t know what its hull construction is. But you could see instantly the difference between one which was built with no thought for comfort, but built purely to be a fighting machine; and the other one which was built on more modern lines and, I dare say, with economy in mind as well, because they’ve become fearsomely expensive. ‘

HMS Hermes is due to be withdrawn from Royal Navy service when Ark Royal becomes operational in 1984. Originally she was to have paid off when Illustrious joined the Fleet but one of the lessons of 1982 for the Royal Navy is that two carriers are certainly not enough. The basic plan which the RAN favours strongly is to acquire Hermes as soon as possible, probably 1985, and operate her till the early nineties when the RAN will introduce an Invincible class carrier. This ship will embody the modifications and improvements of more than a decade’s experience with the type and will be an infinitely better ship than HMS Invincible. The package would also include between twelve and twenty Sea Harriers and a number of Westland Sea King ASW and AEW helicopters. It is not known what the purchase price is on Hermes but as her only Royal Navy alternative is contingent reserve one would imagine the bulk of the contract would cover aircraft and support equipment.

With her modern state-of-the-art electronics, radar and large and sophisticated combat information centre, troop carrying capability, rugged combat-proven design and giveaway purchase price, the RAN hope that at last their carrier is well and truly coming home.