Brazilian aircraft carrier Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais
History
Brazil
NameMinas Gerais
NamesakeState of Minas Gerais
BuilderSwan Hunter
Laid down16 November 1942 as HMS Vengeance (R71)
Launched23 February 1944
Completed15 January 1945
Acquired14 December 1956
BuilderVerolme Dock, Rotterdam (reconstruction)
CostUS$27,000,000
Commissioned6 December 1960
Decommissioned16 October 2001
FateScrapped in India in 2004
Badge
General characteristics (Brazil service)
Class and typeModified Colossus-class aircraft carrier
Displacement
  • 15,890 tons standard
  • 17,500 tons normal
  • 19,890 tons full load
Length
Beam80 ft (24 m)
Draught24.5 ft (7.5 m)
Speed25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph) at 120 revolutions
Range
  • 12,000 nautical miles (22,000 km; 14,000 mi) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph)
  • 6,200 nautical miles (11,500 km; 7,100 mi) at 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph)
Complement1,000 + 300 air group
Sensors and
processing systems
  • Air search: Lockheed AN/SPS-40B; E/F band
  • Surface search: Plessey AWS 4; E/F band
  • Navigation: Signaal ZW06; I band
  • Fire control: 2 × AN/SPG-34; I/J band
  • CCA: Scanter Mil-Par; I band
Armament
Aircraft carried21
NotesTaken from:[1]

NAeL Minas Gerais (pennant number A 11) was a Colossus-class light aircraft carrier operated by the Marinha do Brasil (MB, Brazilian Navy) from 1960 until 2001. The ship was laid down for the United Kingdom's Royal Navy during World War II as HMS Vengeance, was completed shortly before the war's end, and did not see combat. After stints as a training vessel and Arctic research ship, the carrier was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy from 1952 to 1955. She was returned to the British, who sold her to Brazil in 1956.

The ship underwent a four-year conversion in the Netherlands to make her capable of operating heavier naval aircraft. She was commissioned into the MB as Minas Gerais (named after the state of Minas Gerais) in 1960; the first purchased by a Latin American nation, and the second to enter service, behind the Argentinian ARA Independencia (also Colossus-class). Between 1987 and 1996, the carrier was unable to operate fixed-wing aircraft because of a defective catapult, and was retasked as a helicopter carrier and amphibious assault ship.

Minas Gerais remained in service until 2001, when she was replaced by NAe São Paulo. At the time of her decommissioning, she was the oldest operational aircraft carrier in the world, and the last operational unit of the World War II Light Fleet design. Despite attempts to preserve the carrier as a museum ship, and after several failed attempts to auction the ship off (including a listing on eBay), Minas Gerais was sold for scrap in 2004 and taken to Alang, India for breaking up.

  1. ^ Sharpe (ed.), Jane's Fighting Ships, 1996–1997, p. 55