HNLMS Karel Doorman (R81) - Decommissioning

Decommissioning

In 1964, following the settlement of issues threatening its former colonial territories and changes in the mission for the Royal Netherlands Navy within NATO, coupled with the huge costs for operating and maintaining an aircraft carrier, it was decided to withdraw her from the operational fleet by the early 1970s. This was to coincide with the arrival of long range maritime patrol aircraft that were to take over the ASW role Karel Doorman had been tasked to perform ever since the start of the 1960s.

A boiler room fire on 26 April 1968 removed her from Dutch service. To repair the fire damage, new boilers were transplanted from the incomplete HMS Leviathan. In 1969, it was decided that the costs for repairing the damage in relation to the relatively short time Karel Doorman was still to serve in the fleet proved to be her undoing and she was sold to the Argentine Navy, renamed ARA Veinticinco de Mayo, where she would later play a role in the 1982 Falkland Islands Conflict.

In the late 1960s, the NATO anti-submarine commitment was taken over by a squadron of Westland Wasp helicopters operated from six Van Speijk class anti-submarine frigates and two squadrons of shore based maritime patrol aircraft. These were one squadron of Breguet Atlantique sea-reconnaissance aircraft and one of P-2 Neptunes.