BY : Timesonline



The Royal Navy was promoted into the maritime superleague yesterday when ministers signed the long-awaited contract for two 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers.

They will be the second biggest of their kind in the world, each the size of the QE2. Only the American Nimitz Class aircraft carriers, at 90,000 tonnes, have a more impressive tonnage.

The Ministry of Defence went ahead despite a stretched defence budget and murmurings about the near £4 billion price tag and the wisdom of building such huge warships.

Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, said the signing - on board HMS Ark Royal, one of the existing, much smaller carriers - was “a proud moment for the Royal Navy and a proud moment for Britain”. Standing on the flight deck of Ark Royal, moored in Portsmouth dock, Admiral Band said that a navy was defined by its “big-ticket” items such as carriers, amphibious vessels and submarines, “not by minesweepers”.

He insisted that the carriers were not just for the Navy but would benefit all the Armed Forces, and all his fellow Service chiefs had agreed that the two warships were necessary, despite the cost. “We’re as one,” he said.

Andrew Brookes, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, cast doubt on the carrier project, saying that the concept of expeditionary warfare upon which the programme was based was out of date. “I can’t see a prime minister sending a carrier off on some expeditionary operation,” he said. “We should reevaluate the whole idea. The French did and they have decided that rather than have two carriers, they should focus more on acquiring landing rights in the Indian Ocean.

“Of course we don’t know what the future holds but I can see far more use for additional frigates and transport aircraft and helicopters in the years ahead than two giant carriers.”

In an apparent sign of a tacit deal between Service chiefs, Admiral Band said that he had given his personal support to the Army’s demand for a new generation of armoured vehicles, which will cost about £14 billion.

The RAF, which wants more Eurofighter Typhoons and a Super Lynx helicopter, also has his support.

The MoD is carrying out a comprehensive review of all medium and long-term equipment programmes. The only exception is the carriers, which are now sacrosanct.

To keep within the budget limits, cuts and delays in other projects are now seen as inevitable, opening the way for some bitter in-fighting between the Services. With yesterday’s signing ceremony, the Government agreed with the Navy that when it comes to carriers, size matters. Admiral Band said that jumping from the 20,000-tonne Invincible Class carriers, such as HMS Ark Royal, to the giant 65,000-tonne warships would provide greater flexibility and power-projection capability.

Baroness Taylor of Bolton, the Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, signed for the MoD and Alan Johnston, chief executive officer of the newly formed BVT Surface Fleet company, a joint venture combining BAE Systems and the VT Group, added his signature to the contract.

The press release issued for the occasion referred to the “£3 billion” contract, but Lady Taylor acknowledged later that the total cost, taking into account inflation estimates and other risk factors, was actually £3.9 billion. The two carriers, to be named HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, will come into service in 2014 and 2016 respectively.

Lady Taylor admitted there had been doubts in the minds of some people that the programme would ever come to fruition. She said it had taken ten years from the original concept, announced in the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, to put in place the industrial structure to build the huge warships. Asked about the cost and whether it was justified, Admiral Band said that although the present focus was on two land campaigns - Iraq and Afghanistan - it was vital to invest in the future, 15 or 20 years ahead, and he envisaged carriers playing a crucial role in projecting power and protecting Britain’s global interests.

The ships will be built at Barrow-in-Furness, Portsmouth, Govan in Glasgow and Rosyth in Fife, creating 10,000 jobs at the peak of the programme in about 2011.

Mr Johnston said that the vessels would be built in huge blocks and then taken by barge to Rosyth, where they would be assembled.

He said he was confident that they would be built “on time and at cost”. Lady Taylor said that there were incentives for BVT to construct the ships for less than the £3.9 billion price, and she did not envisage that the programme would go over this figure.

As well as the £3.9 billion, another £12 billion will be spent on providing the ships with Joint Strike Fighters - 36 on each. These are being developed in a joint Anglo-American programme, although it is so delayed that Queen Elizabethwill have to come into service equipped with the older-generation Harrier GR9 jump-jet aircraft.