ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (V-2)

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Career	Image:Naval Jack of Argentina.svg <tr valign=top><td>Builder:</td><td>Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, England</td></tr>
Image:Karel Doorman R81.jpg Veinticinco de Mayo still as Hr.Ms. Karel Doorman in service with the Koninklijke Marine before joining the Argentine Navy
Laid down:	3 December 1942
Launched:	30 December 1943 <tr valign=top><td>Commissioned:</td><td>12 March 1969</td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Decommissioned:</td><td>1997</td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Out of service:</td><td>Inoperable by 1985</td></tr>
Status:	Scrapped in 1999
General Characteristics
Displacement:	19,900 tons
Length:	192 m (630 feet)
Beam:	24.4 m (80 feet) <tr valign=top><td>Draught:</td><td>7.5 m (24.4 feet)</td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Propulsion:</td><td>4 boilers with steam turbines 2 shafts 40,000 shp</td></tr>
Speed:	24 knots
Complement:	1,300 <tr valign=top><td>Armament:</td><td>12 x 40 mm AA guns</td></tr><tr valign=top><td>Aircraft carried:</td><td>21</td></tr>

The ARA Veinticinco de Mayo (V-2) was an aircraft carrier in the Armada Republica Argentina from 1969 to 1997. The English translation of the name is the Twenty-fifth of May, which is the May Revolution Day holiday of Argentina.

1 History
2 See also
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] History

The ship was built by Cammel Laird in Birkenhead, England during the Second World War for the Royal Navy. As a Colossus class aircraft carrier, she was named HMS Venerable and saw service in the British Pacific Fleet. However Venerable only served 3 years in the Royal Navy before being sold to the Dutch as HNLMS Karel Doorman.

After a boiler room fire, the Dutch sold the carrier to the Argentine fleet. The Argentinians already operated a carrier, the ARA Independencia, also a former Royal Navy ship. After Independencia was decommissioned in 1970, the Veinticinco de Mayo was the sole remaining carrier in the Argentine fleet and could carry up to 24 aircraft.

The air group started with F9F Panthers and F9F Cougars jets and later these were replaced with A-4Q Skyhawks supported by S-2 Tracker anti-submarine warfare aircraft and Sikorsky Sea King helicopters.

During the Falklands War,<ref name="naming">The Falkland Islands are referred to by the ISO designation of Falkland Islands (Malvinas). Therefore the war is sometimes called Malvinas War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas)</ref> the Veinticinco de Mayo was deployed in a task force north of the Falkland Islands, with the ARA General Belgrano to the south. The British had assigned the HMS Spartan, a nuclear powered submarine, to track down the Veinticinco de Mayo and sink her if necessary.

After hostilities broke out on May 1, 1982, the Argentine carrier attempted to launch a wave of Skyhawk jets against the Royal Navy Task Force.

However, in what was to be the first (and to date, only) battle between aircraft carriers since World War II, poor winds prevented the heavily loaded jets from being launched and after the HMS Conqueror sank the General Belgrano, the Veinticinco de Mayo returned to port, lest it too be sunk. The Spartan never tracked down the carrier.

Her A-4Q Skyhawks flew the rest of the war from the naval airbase in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, and had some success against the Royal Navy, sinking HMS Ardent, although three Skyhawks were shot down by Sea Harriers.

In 1983, the Veinticinco de Mayo was modified to carry the new Dassault Super Étendard jets, but soon after problems in her engines largely confined her to port; she was deemed more or less unseaworthy.

The Argentine Navy could not procure the funds for a modernization, leading to decommissioning by 1997 and finally in 2000, she was towed to Alang, India for scrapping.