BAE Systems to build carrier blocks

BAE Systems? yards on the river Clyde in Scotland and at Barrow in Cumbria are set to build three of the five ?mega blocks? that will make up each of the UK?s $6.3bn aircraft carrier newbuilding project.

Under work share plans taking shape, VT Group and Babcock are to receive one block each with Babcock getting the smallest unit. The proposed work share points to the future make-up of NewCo, the shipbuilding company which could end up running all the UK?s yards.

The news comes as a decision looms on controversial French involvement in the shipbuilding programme, Britain?s largest in a decade. Two options are being considered ? handing the French the designs so they can build a third carrier themselves, or letting them participate in building all three carriers. There are fears the latter option would delay the UK programme, unless the French join in October. A decision is due at the end of September. France?s DCN is the naval systems and shipbuilding company that would work on the programme alongside the British yards. Paris wants a conventionally powered second aircraft carrier to join the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle.

The UK?s shipbuilding industry, long plagued by peaks and troughs, is on the verge of undergoing a radical restructuring which would see the UK?s warship yards being combined into a single entity, dubbed NewCo, under the government?s new maritime industrial strategy. The amount of work allotted to the various companies on the carriers will help determine the size of the stake each will hold in any combined entity.

The UK?s two carriers are being developed by a unique industry alliance made up of BAE Systems, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), Thales UK and KBR UK. Other shipyards such as Portsmouth?s VT are second-tier industrial partners. Originally budgeted at £2.9bn for each ship, the MoD is admitting privately that the cost of the carrier programme could reach at least £3.5bn per vessel while some estimates predict it could be as high as £5bn. The formal launch of the carriers? design and development is due next year.