This letter is taken from the “Daily Mail” of Tuesday 22nd Feb. and is reproduced with permission from the author.
It’s time the Government got a grip on the new aircraft carrier programme. The price tag for these two new ships, originally budgeted at £2.7 billion back in January 2003, has now broken the £5 billion barrier.
Given the Coalition’s misguided decision to fit launch catapults to these ships, no one should be surprised if the final bill tops £8 billion.
Add another £5 billion for aircraft – probably nearer £10 billon if the Government retains its boneheaded adherence to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter – and you’re looking at sums we can’t afford.
But there’s a much cheaper solution which the MoD and UK defence industry have refused to acknowledge for 13 years. We have the option of building in UK shipyards, off plan, two American Wasp-class assault carriers, roughly the same size of the old Seventies Ark Royal, for £2 billion each.
These ships (already in service with the U.S. Navy) are ideal for what the UK really needs – not unaffordable supercarriers but cost effective, flexible 25 – aircraft helicopter/Harrier carriers offering excellent commando and disaster relief capability.
We wouldn’t need to buy any expensive new aircraft for these ships – just make do with our existing helicopters and (supposedly unwanted) Harriers for the foreseeable future, with the option of acquiring the STOVL version of the F-35 at some point, once the public finances recover and the technical issues with this aircraft are resolved.
In this way, the MoD could reduce the cost of the whole carrier programme from the more than £13 billion (including cancellation costs for the two ships), without adverse effect on UK defence industry jobs.
Team this with a deal to buy four or so American P8A Poseidon aircraft to fill the gap left by scrapping Nimrod and we have a low – risk, cost effective deal with our closest ally, setting the RN and RAF on a steady and sustainable future course.
The Government’s claim that it’s locked into the existing Bae systems contract is a cop-out. Parliament could overturn this deal and dispatch its rip-off clauses with the passage of a single Bill – and should do so, if for no other reason than to turn over a new leaf in British defence procurement and put paid to the notion that the UK taxpayer will shovel endless funds at indigenous defence projects which fail to deliver.