HMS Ark Royal to be sold for scrap as alternative uses for aircraft carrier dismissed

Former Navy flagship HMS Ark Royal will be sold on as scrap metal for £3 million as part of a move that the Ministry of Defence has described as “difficult but necessary”.

An announcement in parliament today is expected to reveal the details of the deal after the vessel was decommissioned in 2010, five years ahead of its ­expected sell-by date.

The decision comes following a bidding process which included proposals to turn the ship into a helipad in the Thames, a museum, a hotel, a casino or a diving wreck off the south coast.

Last year, HMS Invincible was also sold to a scrap metal firm as part of the MoD’s drive to get its finances in order.

But HMS Illustrious, commissioned in June 1982 just days after the Falklands War, is expected to be preserved after completing active service in 2014, according to reports ­yesterday.

An MoD spokesman said: “HMS Ark Royal was decommissioned in 2010 after three decades of service and an announcement on her future will be made to parliament.

“Retiring her five years earlier than planned was a difficult but necessary decision to help ­address the multi-billion-pound defence deficit and deliver a ­balanced MoD budget.

“The new, much larger Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers will start to enter service in 2017.”

Ark Royal is seen as a symbol of the former might and current woes of the Royal Navy, being the fifth vessel to carry the name of the flagship which saw off the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Known as the Mighty Ark, the light aircraft carrier saw action in the Adriatic during the ­Bosnian War in 1993 before being sent to lead the British fleet during the invasion of Iraq a decade later.

The 22,000-tonne Invincibleclass carrier was put up for sale online by the Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) agency after it was axed by the government in 2010’s Strategic ­Defence and Security Review. It decided to scupper the vessel and ground the navy’s Harrier jump jet fleet 18 months ago, since when it has been awaiting its fate in ­Portsmouth harbour.

One plan suggested sinking the former flagship to turn it into a dive site.

The campaign behind the plan took a step forward in January when it received millions of pounds of financial backing.

Wreck the World, which aimed to turn the 210-metre ship into a reef off the coast of south Devon, has received £6.5 million from two companies to back its bid to send the historic vessel to a watery grave just over 30 years after it was launched in 1981.