Brazilian aircraft carrier Minas Gerais

Minas Gerais
History
Brazil
Name	Minas Gerais
Namesake	State of Minas Gerais
Builder	Swan Hunter
Laid down	16 November 1942 as HMS Vengeance (R71)
Launched	23 February 1944
Completed	15 January 1945
Acquired	14 December 1956
Builder	Verolme Dock, Rotterdam (reconstruction)
Cost	US$27,000,000
Commissioned	6 December 1960
Decommissioned	16 October 2001
Fate	Scrapped in India in 2004
Badge
General characteristics (Brazil service)
Class and type	Modified Colossus-class aircraft carrier
Displacement	15,890 tons standard 17,500 tons normal 19,890 tons full load
Length	630 ft (190 m) between perpendiculars 695 ft (212 m) overall
Beam	80 ft (24 m)
Draught	24.5 ft (7.5 m)
Speed	25 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)
Complement	1,000 + 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	10 × Bofors 40 mm anti-aircraft guns (2 quad, 1 twin) 2 × 47 mm saluting guns
Aircraft carried	21
Notes	Taken 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.