CARRIER HMS Ark Royal has been formally welcomed back into the arms of the Fleet, taking “her rightful place in the front line”.

Senior officers from Fleet Headquarters in Portsmouth, led by Deputy Commander-in-Chief Fleet Vice Admiral Paul Boissier, conducted a final inspection of the famous flat-top before officially accepting her back into service.

Ark had been out of action for more than two years; the last nine months of that inactivity was consumed by a £20m overhaul in Rosyth which upgraded the 23-year-old warship for Harrier strike and commando carrying operations for the next decade.

The ship ended 2006 with a flurry of trials as Chinook and Apache helicopters landed for the first time post-refit, and the Harrier GR9 bomber made its first touchdown on the flight deck.

Those trials and exercises have persisted into the New Year; Ark’s current trial is to pass the stiff test posed by the experts of the Flag Officer Sea Training, who will be judging the ship’s company on their ability to operate the carrier in her new main role as a commando assault ship.

On top of the traditional six-week BOST (Basic Operational Sea Training) package, the FOSTies are throwing in a two-week series of amphibious exercises.

Ark can now carry up to 400 Royal Marines, serving as a companion ship to HMS Ocean (she doesn’t, however, have a landing craft facility).

Once FOST is over, the ship will spend the bulk of the spring and summer perfecting her new commando role before taken over as NATO’s on-call command ship in late summer – effectively NATO’s flagship.

“I’m delighted we’ve successfully returned to our rightful place in the front line,” said Ark’s CO Capt Mike Mansergh.