The former Royal Navy flagship aircraft carrier Ark Royal is to be sold for £3 million for scrap metal.
An announcement is expected to be made today by Defence Secretary Philip Hammond in Parliament that the ship has been sold for scrap.
Its sister ship HMS Invincible was sold to a Turkish recycling firm Leyal Ship Recycling in February last year.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “HMS Ark Royal was decommissioned in 2010 after three decades of service and an announcement on her future will be made to Parliament on Monday.
“Retiring her five years earlier than planned was a difficult but necessary decision to help address the multi-billion pound defence deficit and deliver a balanced MoD budget.
“The new much larger Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers will start to enter service in 2017.”
