Providing the UK's Carrier Strike Capability : Fifty-Sixth Report of Session 2010-12, Report, Together with Formal Minutes, Oral and Written Evidence

When the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) had started, the Department had contracts for two carriers with an estimated cost of GBP5.24 billion and delivery dates of 2016 and 2018.

Decisions taken in the Review mean the UK will have no carrier aircraft capability from 2011-2020.

While two carriers are still being built, only one will be converted to launch the planes that have now been selected, and the other will be mothballed.

The UK will only have one operational carrier with a significantly reduced availability at sea when Carrier Strike capability is reintroduced in 2020.

That carrier is being built according to the old design and will have to be modified to make it compatible with the requirements of the new aircraft: the cost of these modifications will not be known until 2012.

The SDSR decision is forecast to save GBP3.4 billion, but only GBP600 million of this is cash savings while the remainder is simply deferring expenditure beyond the Department's 10 year planning horizon.

The decision will lead to nine years without Carrier Strike and full capability will not be achieved until 2030. And more work will be needed to get the best and most flexible operational use from the carrier.

The Committee is disappointed that the systemic issues that have appeared in its other recent defence reports continue to arise.

The Committee has built on what has been said in past reports and focussed on two key areas: strategic decision-making and delivery of capabilities