Non-Subscriber ExtractRoyal Navy carrier programme faces 25% cost hike |
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By Tim Fish
02 July 2009
The projected cost of the UK Royal Navy's Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier programme has risen by over GBP1 billion (USD1.6 billion) as a result of the government's decision to postpone the ships' in-service dates by up to two years.
Details of the increase - of approximately 25 per cent - emerged in a memorandum circulating among the chief executives of the leading contractors in the build programme, which was leaked to the BBC and published on 29 June.
According to the memo, the cost of the two 65,000-ton carriers - Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales - is expected to increase from GBP3.9 billion to about GBP5 billion.
The document warned that carrier procurement would come under severe pressure from political opponents when the revised figure was released in July, with the Ministry of Defence's (MoD's) annual accounts, prompting a "fight for the programme's survival".