Training | 2009.06.30
Cost of aircraft carriers soars by £1bn
• Delays caused by financial pressures added to bill
• New blow highlights row over Trident replacement
The defence budget, already under unprecedented pressure, was delivered a severe blow last night when defence officials admitted that the cost of two new aircraft carriers had soared to £5bn, over £1bn more than first estimated.
The huge increase comes at a time when defence chiefs are at odds over ambitious weapons projects, with the army highly critical of expensive projects, including plans to replace the Trident nuclear missile system at a cost of more than £70bn.
Quentin Davies, the arms procurement minister, said the spiralling costs of the carriers were partly the result of delays in the project, which are themselves the result of financial pressures.
Both General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, who retires this summer, and his successor General Sir David Richards have warned recently of the dangers of spending money on weapons systems that are not relevant to the current urgent needs of the armed forces. They have not mentioned specific projects, however.
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said last night: "The MoD took the decision to delay the two future aircraft carriers in December 2008. We did this in order to reprioritise investment to meet current operational priorities and to better align the programme with the joint strike fighter aircraft. We acknowledged at the time that there would be a cost increase as a result. We are currently re-costing the programme. The MoD accounts published next month will present an initial estimate and the formal costing will be available until later in the year."
Last night defence officials told the Guardian the increase in the cost of the carriers would be formally announced next month.
The disclosure comes as the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a leading thinktank, said weapons projects totalling at least £24bn should be reviewed "with a view to making cuts".
"Fundamental choices are necessary. The attempt to maintain the full spectrum of conventional combat capabilities at the current scale has produced acute strains on resources and, increasingly, on operational effectiveness," a report by its National Security Commission, chaired by Lord Robertson, the former Labour defence secretary and ex-Nato secretary general, and Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, will say today.
It says a defence review should scrutinise the project to build new aircraft carriers and the plan to equip them with US joint strike fighters at a cost of £10bn, the navy\'s destroyer and nuclear-powered, conventionally armed, submarine programmes, the army\'s main battle tanks and the RAF\'s Tornado and Eurofighter-Typhoon aircraft.
The IPPR commission argues that "in prevailing world circumstances, the UK should maintain a minimum credible independent deterrent".
However, it adds that it is necessary to look at whether there are any possible alternatives, "to avoid the need" to renew Trident. It says "a full and transparent review of the existing deterrent" is needed.
The value of replacing the Trident nuclear missile system is being increasingly questioned throughout Whitehall. Defence officials say the decision whether or not to go ahead with a replacement is a political rather than a military decision.
The IPPR report adds that assumptions that the US will always come to Britain\'s rescue are complacent and it is "delusional" to believe that the UK can act alone without closer European defence co-operation. It warns: "If we do not strengthen Nato by reinforcing its European pillar, not just on defence but on wider security issues too, the result will be neither the status quo nor some other fantasy of wider collective security co-operation."
It adds: "There will be a future crisis that leaves us vulnerable to shifting American interests and opinion, relative US decline and European disunity and weakness, when Nato\'s political glue fails to hold and Europe is left more exposed than at any time since the second world war."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/[...]dget-aircraft-carriers-trident
