INS Viraat is the longest serving warship in the world. It hold the Guinness Books of record INS Viraat was first commissioned into the British Royal Navy as the HMS Hermes on November 18, 1959, 15 years after she was laid down in June, 1944. She served as the flagship of the Royal Navy’s task force during the Falklands War in 1982. She was decommissioned in 1985. Hermes was thereafter towed from Portsmouth Dockyard to Devonport Dockyard to be refitted and sold to India. . The aircraft carrier was commissioned into the Indian Navy on May 12, 1987. . Its motto is (in Sanskrit)- “Jalamev Yasya Balmev Tasya” (One who controls the sea is all powerful). The crest of Viraat shows an eagle which symbolizes air power and the five arrows held in the talons of the eagle depict the ship’s versatile weapon capability. INS Viraat was decommissioned recently.
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