Centaur-class aircraft carrier

Britain hoped to order eight light fleet carriers in 1943 to supplement the . Matters were complicated by the demand to operate larger and higher performing aircraft; at the end of 1942, the Joint Technical Committee recommended that carriers be able to operate aircraft with a landing speed of . A new light carrier design was required as the could not be modified to handle the new requirements; it became the first British carrier design to be dominated by aircraft operations. A sketch design was prepared by the end of May 1943, and the final design was approved in March 1944; it was revised in 1947. Eight of the new light carriers were ordered in 1943. It quickly became apparent that wartime demands on shipyard capacity made it impossible to complete the ships in 1946. Only three - Albion, Centaur, Elephant - started construction in 1944; Bulwark started in 1945; the remainder were cancelled on 15 October 1945 with Elephant being renamed Hermes after one of the cancelled ships. The cost of modernisation saw the ships diverge in capability even before completion. Albion and Bulwark were completed with interim angled flight decks and hydraulic catapults. They were not modernised to operate modern aircraft, instead being converted into helicopter assault ships ("commando carriers"). Centaur was partially modernised with steam catapults shortly after being commissioned and limited to operating mainly de Havilland Sea Vixen fighters until retirement in 1965. Hermes was the last ship completed - in 1959 - and the only one to be fully modernised. Her career as a conventional carrier ended in 1970 while operating Sea Vixens and Blackburn Buccaneers; afterwards, she served as a helicopter carrier and then as a V/STOL carrier operating Sea Harrier fighters. Hermes was sold to India as , and continued to operate Sea Harriers from 1987 until retiring in 2017. ==Design==

. The 1942 light fleet carrier was conceived as a wartime expedient to respond to the Royal Navy's desperate need for fast carriers. The design was ruthlessly simplified to reduce cost and construction times; the hull was unarmoured and built to merchant standards, armament was limited to light anti-aircraft guns, and it used existing cruiser machinery. During requirements discussions, it was suggested that durability was needed for just three years of service. From the initial 1943 sketches, the Centaur was designed for longer post-war careers to a hybrid of merchant and warship standards. The flight deck, longitudinal protective bulkhead, middle deck over the machinery, and lower decks over aviation fuel were constructed with hardened steel. The magazines and bomb rooms were covered by 2-inch non-cemented armour. The remainder of the hull was made of mild steel. The hull was enlarged to accommodate larger aircraft; the 1-inch hardened steel construction of the flight deck also supported heavier aircraft. The axial flight deck included one catapult. The machinery was half the set used on the for 76,000 shaft horsepower on two shafts; there was no capacity to develop new machinery. Armament neared fleet carrier standards with 4 twin 4.5-inch BD guns. The design was modified in 1947. Living arrangements were upgraded to peacetime standards and to include centralised messing; the aft hangar was converted into additional living space. The addition of a second catapult may have also contributed to the hangar length being reduced from to 381 ft. The 4.5 inch guns were removed. The island was redesigned to add the new two-deck configuration for the action information organisation. The intended radar suite was an air warning Type 980, a gunnery air search Type 293, and two pairs of air control Type 277Q; none of these were actually used. ==Ships==

Hermes (cancelled) Hermes was the original name-ship of the class. She was ordered from Cammell Laird of Birkenhead on 12 July 1943. No work had been done when construction was ordered to be deferred in early 1944. The ship was cancelled on 15 October 1945. The name was transferred to Elephant. The carrier returned to operational status in August 1956 and participated in Operation Musketeer during the Suez Crisis in November. and scrapped starting in 2020. Arrogant Arrogant was ordered from Swan Hunter on 12 July 1943, deferred in early 1944, and then cancelled on 15 October 1945. No work appears to have been done. She was to be built at Wallsend-on-Tyne. Monmouth Monmouth was ordered from the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company on 12 July 1943. She was to have been one of the four ships to start construction in 1944, but Fairfield was too overloaded to do so; Bulwark replaced Monmouth as the fourth ship in 1945. Monmouth was cancelled on 15 October 1945 with no work apparently having been done. Polyphemus Polyphemus was ordered from Devonport Dockyard on 11 August 1943, to be constructed after HMS Terrible. Construction was deferred in late 1943 and cancelled on 15 October 1945. Parsons Marine Engineering received orders for machinery before the deferral; the orders were cancelled before the ship was. The slipway would have required a slight extension to build the carrier; Fore Street was purchased to make room and walled off, and was only returned to Plymouth in 2005. ==See also==