Brazilian Aircraft Carrier Minas Gerais - Replacement and Decommissioning

Replacement and Decommissioning

The replacement of Minas Gerais was first suggested in the early 1980s, as part of planned 15-year naval expansion program. Two different carrier designs were proposed. The first was for a 40,000 ton ship equipped with up to forty aircraft, including naval fighters. To complement this proposal, a plan to expand the Brazilian fleet air arm by acquiring second-hand A-4 Skyhawks from Kuwait or Israel was submitted. For this to happen, the 1965 ruling that prevented the MB from operating fixed-wing aircraft had to be overturned; a decision the FAB opposed. To make the purchase worthwhile, Minas Gerais would have to operate the aircraft until the replacement carrier entered service, which in turn required the installation of a modified steam catapult and arresting gear. As the ship had just emerged from a modernisation refit, this was an expensive proposition, and the Skyhawk acquisition plan was cancelled in October 1984. The Skyhawk plan was successfully revisited in the late 1990s. The second proposal was for a 25,000 ton helicopter carrier built to commercial standards. Later interpretations of this proposal suggested a ship similar to the Royal Navy's HMS Ocean.

Replacement of Minas Gerais was under serious consideration by 1999; despite numerous refits and life-extending upgrades, the MB predicted that the carrier would require replacement before 2010. As well as the two proposals, consideration was given to acquiring a second-hand carrier, such as the French Navy's Foch. One of the main issues in considering the replacement was the MB's significant investment in fixed-wing aviation in the late 1990s; a carrier capable of operating the recently-acquired Skyhawks would be more expensive to acquire and operate than a STOVL or helicopter carrier, but the cheaper concepts would require the refactoring of Brazilian naval aviation. In the end, Foch was acquired, renamed NAe São Paulo, and slated to commission into the Marinha do Brasil in April 2001.

Minas Gerais was decommissioned on 16 October 2001: the last of the World War II-era light aircraft carriers to leave service. At the time of her decommissioning, she was the oldest active aircraft carrier in the world (a title passed on to the 1961-commissioned USS Kitty Hawk). The carrier was marked for sale in 2002, and was sought after by British naval associations for return to the United Kingdom and preservation as a museum ship, although they were unable to raise the required money. Just before Christmas 2003, the carrier was listed for sale on auction website eBay by a user claiming to be a shipbroker representing the owner. Bidding reached £4 million before the auction was removed from the website under rules preventing the sale of military ordnance. An auction in Rio de Janeiro in February 2004 also failed to sell the ship. Sometime between February and July 2004, the carrier was towed to the ship breaking yards at Alang, India for dismantling.