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UK aircraft carrier orders likely to survive11 Oct 2010Source Financial Times UK Prime Minister David Cameron is likely to go ahead with a £5.2bn order for two new aircraft carriers, in spite of defence chiefs recommending that one should be scrapped. The prime minister is expected to spare the second 65,000-tonne carrier, according to senior Whitehall figures, because to cancel the contract would cost more than to build both during the next four years. Such a decision runs counter to Ministry of Defence proposals put to the National Security Council on Thursday, which endorsed maintaining an operational carrier but concluded that the military requirement was satisfied by a single vessel. Mr Cameron had pressed Liam Fox, defence secretary, to recheck costs of the programme after expressing bafflement about one carrier being more expensive than two. The anomaly is caused by a “terms of business agreement” with BAE Systems that requires substitute work to be provided if the second carrier were to be cancelled. Officials examined fast-tracking production of Type-26 frigates or lightly armed corvettes as an alternative that satisfied contractual obligations and provided the navy with more warships. Defence figures said this was unlikely to be satisfactory. The navy does not want the corvettes – warships they deride as “snatch frigates” – and the Type-26 cannot be designed in time to avoid shipyards closing for lack of work. It leaves Mr Cameron and George Osborne, chancellor, facing an unpalatable set of options. “If you’re determined to get rid of the second one, it certainly makes the spending review a great deal harder,” said one senior defence figure. Read more here |
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