Daring delayed - again11 December 2007
TAXPAYERS will have to dip into their pockets for an
extra £500m to pay for two of the RN’s vital new warships.
Despite conducting highly-successful sea trials off Scotland in the summer,
HMS Daring will not now be in service until the tail end of 2010.
The Type 45 destroyer project
is already 2½ years behind schedule.
But a report from the National Audit Office now warns Daring will be
delayed by a further 11 months for ‘technical factors’.
The delays mean the cost of the Type 45 programme has shot up by £354m in the past 12 months (despite £30m shaved off the budget by buying fewer missiles for the destroyers and a further £78m saved during the construction process).
The MOD originally set aside £5bn for the destroyers – successors to the ageing Type 42s. The bill for the six ships ordered is now set at £6.46bn.
Delays to Daring also mean one Type 42 will have to be run on for a year longer – costing £2m in upkeep.
The other price hike for the RN comes from the Astute hunter-killer submarine programme.
Originally £2.5bn was set aside for the next-generation attack submarine.
The NAO says the Astutes will now cost £3.79bn – the cost has risen by £142m in the past year – as the boats require more materials than originally predicted, and hence more labour to fit this extra equipment.
On the plus side, the cost of the Joint Strike Fighter/Joint Combat Aircraft – the replacement for the Harrier – has dropped by £58m. The jets are now expected to cost the taxpayer £1.85bn, down from the original estimated cost of £2.03bn.
http://www.navynews.co.uk/view-story.aspx?articleID=73
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Cabinet split over defence cuts
By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 2:58am GMT 06/12/2007
Plans to slash the defence budget by up to £15 billion over the next decade has caused a split in the Cabinet leading to the Ministry of Defence delaying the publication of its latest 10 year industrial strategy, due to be published next Thursday.
Overall spending on defence is due to rise from £34.1 billion next year to £36.9 billion in 2010, but Whitehall is said to be split over cuts which could include
reducing the number of new Astute nuclear powered submarines being built at Barrow from eight to as few as four and
cancelling orders for the seventh and eigth Type 45 frigate at Portsmouth or diverting them from the Royal Navy by selling them to the Malaysian navy.
The revelation, in a report by spending watchdogs on the cost of Britain's 20 biggest weapon projects, put the likely cost overrun at £2.5 billion out of a total bill of £28 billion.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh ... nce104.xml
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