The UK Ministry of Defence has offered amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean for sale to the Brazilian Navy, the media in the South American country wrote.
The UK Defence Journal first noted the reports which said the price of the helicopter carrier was deemed “reasonable” by Brazilian officials.
Following up on the reports, the publication contacted persons currently aboard HMS Ocean and received a confirmation that rumors of sale do exist while there were no further talks on which navy that could be.
HMS Ocean is the current fleet flagship of the Royal Navy and is set to be decommissioned in 2018, after the Royal Navy’s first Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier enters service.
Commissioned in October 1995, the 202-meter long HMS Ocean replaced HMS Bulwark as fleet flagship in June 2015. In her role as a helicopter carrier and amphibious assault ship, Ocean is designed to deliver troops by helicopter or by landing craft.
The rumors follow a recent Brazilian Navy decision to decommission their only aircraft carrier BNS Sao Paulo (A 12) after it was determined that cost of returning the aircraft carrier to an operational status was too high.
After several attempts to improve the ship’s operational capacity failed in previous years, the navy reasoned that a modernization procedure would necessitate heavy investment without a guarantee of operational improvement.
BNS Sao Paulo, formerly known as Clemencau-class FS Foch, was a conventionally-powered aircraft carrier built for the French Navy in 1959. By acquiring the ship in 2000, Brazil became the only country in South America to operate an aircraft carrier.