Uncertainty drags on over UK's future aircraft carriers
Uncertainty over delivery and where they will be stationed says paper


One of Scotland's broadsheets, the Scotsman, reports today that the long awaited aircraft carrier announcement may yet be further delayed.

The programme has been dogged by delays for years now and despite hints in recent weeks that an announcement on their construction would be made sooner rather than later, only further concerns and complications have entered the public domain.

Despite a trumpeted article in the popular newspaper The Sun last week, no decisions have been made on the carrier programme or announced. Instead the rest of the press have carried stories of uncertainty and delay.

Only a couple of days ago it was reported in the Financial Times that Thales had sent a proposal to the government to have a joint programme with the French. Britain wants two vessels, France one, and, the FT said, Thales had proposed the two programmes should be merged.

Infuriatingly perhaps for defence chiefs, (and for BAE Systems) the official UK response was that the Ministry of Defence "was still considering all industrial proposals for the carrier-building plan".

Now says the Scotsman the final decision on the construction of the vessels might be delayed until the government's spending review in October.

Meanwhile the Scotsman also claims that even when the ships are built there is still question of where they will be home-ported and suggests that Faslane on the Clyde has been put forward as a suitable base. Speculation about the future of the current home of the present aircraft carriers, Portsmouth, and hints about the suitability of Faslane suggest that it is a contender says the paper.

However Faslane would require significant infrastructure changes to accommodate the giant vessels, to be named QUEEN ELIZABETH II and THE PRINCE OF WALES.