INS Viraat will be decommission later this year. Image: PIB INS Viraat will be decommission later this year. Image: PIB

After serving for 29 years under Indian Navy, the world’s oldest aircraft carrier INS Viraat will be decommissioned later this year. The ship had arrived in Kochi shipyard earlier in July for Essential Repairs and Dry Docking (ERDD) and it was finished on September 4, 2016.

INS Viraat will now be moved back to Mumbai from Kochi for the decommissioning ceremony. Prior to being commissioned in Indian Navy on May 12, 1987, the aircraft career had also served with UK’s Royal Navy for 27 years.

This makes the total operational service of 56 years. INS Viraat also holds the Guinness world record for being the oldest surviving warship in the world.

The first major Indian operation which INS Viraat became a part of was Operation Jupiter in July 1989. Apart from that, it had also played a major role in Operation Parakram and Operation Vijay.

It’s last operational deployment was in International Fleet Review (IFR-2016) at Vishakhapatanam on February, 2016.

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