[World] UK carrier

Royal Navy aircraft carrier costs 'to double' This computer-generated image shows how the ships might look

The cost of two new aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy is expected to be almost twice the original estimate, the government is expected to confirm this week.

In the latest budget, the Ministry of Defence is set to estimate the cost of the two ships at £ 6.2bn.

The department says it is renegotiating the contract to avoid further significant rises.

Six years ago, when the contract was approved, costs were put at £3.65bn.

 'Financial fiascos' 

The defence project is one of the biggest ever undertaken in the UK and has been beset by construction and design delays.

A government source said it had inherited a flawed contract that was now being renegotiated to ensure industry shared the burden of any future rises.

The shadow defence secretary, Labour's Vernon Coaker, said: "This is the latest in a series of financial fiascos in the MoD under David Cameron.

"The defence secretary's claim that he has balanced the MoD books looks increasingly nonsensical. Britain deserves better than this shambolic approach to our nation's defence."

During the course of the project, an order for carrier jump jets - capable of short take-offs and vertical landings - was switched to jets with a longer range that could carry more weapons.

However, in February last year, the MoD decided to revert to the original jets for logistical and financial reasons.

This "U-turn" saw £74m of taxpayers' money go "down the drain", Labour's Margaret Hodge, the chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said in September.

The cross-party committee, which assesses value for money in government spending, has said it still regards the project as "a huge technical and commercial risk" and was not convinced the MoD had it under control.

It said in its report that officials had made basic errors, such as failing to factor in the cost of inflation and VAT.'Advanced negotiations' "No final decisions have been taken and the department will make an announcement in due course."

Assembly work is taking place on both of the 65,000-tonne carriers at a specially extended dry dock at Rosyth, on the River Forth in Dunfermline.

HMS Queen Elizabeth, which will not be finished until 2016 at the earliest, will be delivered before HMS Prince of Wales.

The Royal Navy says the ships will carry helicopters until 2020, when the fighter jets will become available.

The £6.2bn cost estimate for the project does not include buying the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. The MoD says there are expected to be 48 jets, although this has not been confirmed.

The UK currently has only one aircraft carrier - HMS Illustrious - but this cannot be used for strike aircraft, only helicopters. This has led to warnings of a decade-long capability gap.

 Analysis 

Jonathan Beale Defence correspondent, BBC News

It's perhaps no great surprise that another major defence project is well over budget. And Britain's not alone. The Pentagon is seeing the price tag rise for its new aircraft carrier too.

Nevertheless, this is an embarrassment for Defence Secretary Philip Hammond, who has boasted that he would keep costs under control. He'll be keen to blame the last Labour government for signing a "flawed" contract with industry (David Cameron said it would have cost more to cancel the project than build the ships).

Mr Hammond is soon expected to announce that he has renegotiated that contract to ensure that industry equally shares the burden of any more cost rises - that's the silver lining.

The worry though is that the government - and the taxpayer - still don't know what the final bill will be. That £6bn does not include the cost of buying the new F35 jets for the carrier. Nor has the government made clear whether the Royal Navy will be getting one new carrier or both. The original plan was to mothball one.US squadrons 'may use UK carrier' for operations In July the Red Arrows flew over HMS Queen Elizabeth to mark the official naming of the vessel by the Queen

The Royal Navy may ask US squadrons to fly off its new aircraft carrier following delays to its new F35B fighters, BBC Newsnight has learned.

MoD insiders said the US Marine Corps would be offered the use of HMS Queen Elizabeth for flight operations.

The UK plans to have its first F35 squadron operational by 2018, but Newsnight has learned that there may be further delays.

The MoD said it was not aware of any further delay to the timetable.

The plan is for one squadron of British F35s to be ready for service at sea by 2021. But even if it is achieved, it will create a gap of years where the Queen Elizabeth is ready but British squadrons are not.

For the past year defence analysts had been expecting the MoD to order 14 of the new jets.UK pilots Gen Lord Richards became the chief of defence staff - the head of the British armed forces - in 2010

In February, Newsnight was told that it would be placed "within days". But persistent doubts about the F35's enormously complex software, and an engine fire this summer caused successive delays to the decision.

When the British purchase was announced, last month, it was for just four of the planes. The MoD says that this order will allow trials to start from the Queen Elizabeth on time with "UK F35Bs, flown by UK pilots".

But the slowdown in the expected purchasing rate is bound to delay the aircraft's entry into squadron service, say defence insiders.

Former chief of the defence staff General Lord Richards told Newsnight that asking US jets to fly from the Queen Elizabeth would be a sensible way of bridging the gap between the carrier being completed, and a British squadron of jets being available.

He said: "If we can catch up using American aircraft in the intervening period that would make good sense."

He denied that it was humiliating for Britain not to have its own jets ready when it comes into service because the ships could be used for different functions such as carrying helicopters or troops.

However, the MoD said on Wednesday that it was "not aware" of any further delay to the timetable for the first operational squadron.

Even if the timetable is kept, senior naval officers are nervous that a gap in capability during 2018-2021, coming at a time when the defence budget will come under fresh pressure after the next general election, could damage their chances of keeping the two new carriers, which they regard as central to remaining a "first division naval power".

With a Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) expected to get under way in 2015, the huge ships, which have long been the subject of controversy in Whitehall, are likely to come under fresh scrutiny.

Newsnight has been told that many decisions relating to the new ships, including such questions as their communications fit, are now being put on hold until the SDSR. Naval chiefs are therefore determined to get them to sea with a credible looking complement of aircraft on their decks, as soon as possible.

An MoD spokesman said: "The Lightning II [F-35B] Force will be manned by Royal Navy and RAF pilots and we can be clear that aircraft used for the first Class Flying Trials in 2018 will be UK F35Bs, flown by UK pilots.

"We are also working closely with our key allies, specifically the US Marine Corps and the US Navy, to regenerate our carrier strike capability and we will seek further opportunities to do so in the future."

  ★ BBC