Work starts on new aircraft carrier - HMS Prince of Wales

Liam Fox: Expected to attend a ceremony where the first parts of the aircraft carriers will be cut
12 April 2012

Construction of a new multi-billion pound aircraft carrier will begin today.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox is expected to attend a ceremony where the first parts of the HMS Prince of Wales, the second of the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers, will be cut.

The 280-metre long vessel, along with its sister HMS Queen Elizabeth, survived last autumn's defence review, despite massive cuts elsewhere in the Ministry of Defence budget.

Both vessels will be converted to be compatible with US jets.

The Ministry of Defence said the conversion would allow Joint Strike Fighter planes to operate from the carriers and give "greater capability and inter-operability" with allies.

Today, plasma lasers will cut the first sheets of steel for the largest warship to be built in the UK at BAE Systems' Govan shipyard on the Clyde.

Six shipyards across the UK will build parts of the giant vessel, but it will be assembled in Govan, Glasgow.

The 65,000-tonne ship will need to be converted to accommodate the Joint Strike Fighter and is expected to be operational from 2020.

The two aircraft carriers are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, consisting of BAE Systems, Babcock and Thales.

HMS Queen Elizabeth will be the first to enter service in 2019.

Mr Fox is also expected to visit RAF Leuchars and RAF Lossiemouth, as well as meet with Scotland's First Minister today.

In April, official sources confirmed the final cost of the Royal Navy's two new aircraft carriers will not be known until the end of next year, amid reports that it could rise by up to £2 billion.

Reports had suggested that building the HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales could end up costing the taxpayer £7 billion, up from the £5.2 billion expected at the time of the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR).

The SDSR last autumn cut a number of programmes and put back the launch date of the new carriers.

Earlier this week, former First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band warned of "potentially destructive" capability gaps left by the loss of assets like the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and Harrier jump-jets in last October's SDSR.

Admiral Band, who led the Navy from 2006-09, said that the SDSR had produced "a strange set of decisions" which will see Britain without ship-borne jet fighters until around 2020, when the first of the new aircraft carriers comes into service.

Until that time, the Royal Navy will not be a "full spectrum" force and Britain will be unable to mount operations like the intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 without US or French help, he told the House of Commons Defence Committee.

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