HMS Hermes was a conventional British aircraft carrier and the last of the . Hermes was in service with the Royal Navy from 1959 until 1984, and she served as the flagship of the British forces during the 1982 Falklands War. After being sold to India in 1986, the vessel was recommissioned and remained in service with the Indian Navy as until 2017. Construction and modifications The ship was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness during World War II as HMS Elephant. Construction was suspended in 1945 but work was resumed in 1952 to clear the slipway and the hull was launched on 16 February 1953. The vessel remained unfinished until 1957, when she entered service on 18 November 1959 as HMS Hermes after extensive modifications which included installation of a massive Type 984 'searchlight' 3D radar, a fully angled deck with a deck-edge lift, and steam catapults. With these changes she more resembled the reconstructed aircraft carrier than the other three ships in the class. Hermes initially operated Supermarine Scimitar, de Havilland Sea Vixen, and Fairey Gannet fixed-wing aircraft, together with Westland Whirlwind helicopters. Cost The construction cost of Hermes was £18 million, with a further £1 million for electronic equipment and a further £10 million for aircraft in 1959. Operations On 16 November 1962, Hermes was cruising off of the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales when one of her helicopters carrying two Members of Parliament, Lord Windlesham and the MP for Loughborough, John Cronin, back from the carrier, which they had been visiting, to RNAS Brawdy, crashed off St David's Head. While Cronin and the helicopter's two-man crew were saved by another helicopter from Hermes, Lord Windlesham and an RAF officer being carried as a passenger were killed. Proposed operation of F-4 Phantom John Hay, Civil Lord of the Admiralty, said in Parliament on 2 March 1964 that "Phantoms will be operated from "Hermes", "Eagle" and the new carrier when it is built. ... Our present information and advice is that the aircraft should be able to operate from "Hermes" after she has undergone her refit." This seemed optimistic, as most sources believed Victorious was the smallest carrier then in commission that the modified RN F-4K versions of the Phantom could realistically have operated from. The British Rolls-Royce Spey engines replacing the US General Electric J79 were a political necessity given the cancellation of the supersonic British Hawker Siddeley