UK last aircraft carrier Ark Royal for sale on the internet

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1370864/Buyer-collect-Ark-Royal-poste...
She is the Navy's former flagship, a symbol of Britain's proud maritime history.
But after sailing the world's seas for a quarter of a century, the HMS Ark Royal is suffering an undignified end -- being put up for sale on an eBay-style auction website and possibly becoming scrap metal.
Potential buyers with several million pounds can snap up the aircraft carrier from the Ministry of Defence website.

The 10,000-ton warship is being advertised on the edisposals.com site just two weeks after she was decommissioned.
The sale follows that of her sister ship HMS Invincible, which was towed away last week to a scrapyard in Turkey after being sold on the same internet site.

Although the Ark Royal could also be sold for scrap metal, other proposals include turning her into a commercial heliport in London or a fortified base for special forces troops providing security at next year's Olympic Games.
Bidders have until 10am on June 13 to put their tenders forward for the ship. No minimum price is given but the MoD is hoping to raise at least £2million.

The vessel is currently berthed at the naval yard in Portsmouth, Hampshire. She was built by Swan Hunter on Tyneside and launched in 1981.
Ministers announced Ark Royal was being axed in the Strategic Defence and Security Review last year.
An MoD spokesman said: 'Difficult decisions had to be made during the SDSR due to the severe financial constraints facing the department.
'HMS Ark Royal has a proud history in the naval fleet and was due to leave service in three years' time.
'Bringing forward her decommissioning ensures we will have an enhanced carrier strike capability in the future.'
Daily Mail

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Ark Royal
• sale
• internet
• ebay
• HMS
• flagship
• Britannia
• rules the waves

[Legofattythatfarted]

I strngly dislike anybody who thinks this carrier shall be scrapped. Maritime history shall be preserved and shown and opened to the public, rather than torn to pieces and used to build other things. Thumbs up if you agree.

[TobyParr]

why is the uk getting ride of their air craft carrier's fuck those 16yr old knocked up mom's and focus on real money equipment we need 1 A"CARRIER.! in the west bottom of the uk and 1 at the top and a spare 1 at a base.!!:) :[.!

[laluprasad111]

@TobyParr its very expensive to maintain it....

[snozdog]

@staceyfanny Do you just troll everyones comments? How many times has America picked up the piece? The war they entered 2 years late? Or all the ones they've lost since? Fact is no one needs your help, unless that help is learning the art of ramming their head all the way up there own arse and managing to gain about 25 stone while doing it.

[MrXray2011]

@ToonandBBfan It will. We're not stupid enough to ruin the AF as well. I'm sure we'll start buying again after the money starts flowing through again. Actually Russia has a bigger AF than the UK but it is not as good (planes or pilots.)

[ToonandBBfan]

@MrXray2011

I hope so mate. The RAF is the strongest airforce in Europe (in terms of aircraft numbers) and in NATO second only to the USA.

Fingers crossed it stays that way!

[MrXray2011]

@ToonandBBfan The cuts are over... for now and if the economy carries on picking up then I can see no reason for any more military cuts or we would be playing with fire. As far as I know we're to have 150 EF's and 150 F-35's plus unspecified numbers of BAE Taranis'. 10 Preditors and other UCAV's. The numbers in the military should begin to pick back up by 2020!!! And I really hope that it does. 

[ToonandBBfan]

@MrXray2011

Yeah, I agree we should be designing our own and not relying on allies.

We've had some good aircraft over the years.

The Good old Blackburn Buccaneer, fantastic maritime airplane and do you know how many Americans tried and failed to intercept one at low level?...............ALOT

I suppose this F-35 will take us into the next generation - I just hope some arsehole politician doesnt throw a spanner in the works and start to cut the RAF the way the navy has been cut!

[MrXray2011]

@MrXray2011 or the EF Typhoon but that doesn't matter as the enemy won't know where they're being attacked from. I would like to see more EF's for the RAF and atlast 200 F-35's. We are buying about 150 F-35C's for the RAF and the Royal Navy. In conjunction with the EF we will have about 300 fighter jets! The only jets that could oppose them is the F22, which as I said we should have but the USA aren't selling them at the moment.

[MrXray2011]

@ToonandBBfan It will be the best thing that the Royal Navy will have. It is not without it's issues; the main one being that it is American- when we should have deigned and made new jets ourselves. At the moment they're having to re-design the F-35C (the carrier version) as the arrestor hook is in the wrong place. If I had the choice between the F-35, F/A18 of F16, I would pick the F-35C but only because they're stealthy. They're not as agile as the F-22 (which we should have) ...

[ToonandBBfan]

@MrXray2011

What your opinion on this F-35 Lightning II?

I've heard some say it will be a fantastic multi-role aircraft and some have said it will be a huge waste of money and that airforces/navies would be better off maintaining/upgrading their existing F-16's, F-18, etc etc?

I dunno what I feel about the F-35.......

[MrXray2011]

@ToonandBBfan Exactly, we have 67 Apache's and there's no way we could fit them all onto HMS Ocean or HMS Illustrious alone. And HMS Bulwark and HMS Albion could hold a few as well. We should have prepared for this earlier though- add 'cats and traps' to operate the F/A 18 for a while- at least we would have had an sea// airbourne attack capability. Not forgetting Lynxs' and Sea Kings to deliver Royal Marines.