Navy orders two aircraft carriers

The Royal Navy is to place a £10 billion order for two massive aircraft carriers - the largest ships in its history.

The Ministry of Defence today announced the order for the 50,000-tonne carriers - which will be accompanied by an order for 150 jump jets.

Each of the two carriers will be longer than the Houses of Parliament and can fit a destroyer into their main aircraft hangars. They will be more than twice the size of the Navy's present flagship carrier, HMS Ark Royal.

The new ships are scheduled to be in service in 2012 and 2015. They will replace the ageing Royal Navy carriers Ark Royal, Invincible and Illustrious.

Today the MoD announced the design of the ships is to be "adaptable" in order to take both jump jets and conventional aircraft. There will also be enough space for up to 1,000 commandos and special

forces, including multi-gyms and a mini-assault course. The commandos will have their own fleet of Apache attack helicopters and the heavy twin- rotor Chinook troop carriers.

The two main competitors to build the ships are an Anglo-American consortium led by British Aerospace Systems and an Anglo-French consortium led by Thales. The winner of the deal will be announced by Christmas.

The jump jet aspect of the order will mean that the technology of the Harrier, which helped win the Falklands War, will live on.

If the consortium led by BAE Systems wins, the contract to build and maintain the two new carriers means thousands of British jobs will be saved in dockyards throughout the country.

Rolls-Royce aircraft workers will also be guaranteed continued employment as it is responsible for the vertical lift systems that will be used by the Joint Strike Fighter.

Lobbying for the contract is already fierce with today's announcement of the specification for the carriers leading to more political moves by the French, who say they would allow British shipyards to help build a second French carrier to join its existing Charles de Gaulle carrier.

In the past few weeks both consortia have established offices near the Bristol HQ of the Defence Procurement Agency. "They are very interested in the way we are automating aircraft maintenance and handling and ammunition loading," said Nigel Stewart, managing director of BAE Systems.

"We will build all around Britain, involving yards like Vosper Thorneycroft on the South Coast and Swan Hunter on the Tyne.

"We hope to end the cycle of feast and famine in naval shipbuilding with a steady stream of orders and work."

The main United States carrier yard at Newport News is interested in adapting the British design for a new class of smaller US carriers, the CV77. The old 90,000-ton monster carriers with their 6,000 crew are proving increasingly unmanageable - with discipline problems, riots and even murder not unknown in the lower decks.