France and UK battle over carriers

France is reportedly on a collision course with the UK over a £100m demand for access to the UK?s aircraft carrier programme. The issue is expected to dominate the forthcoming meeting between UK Defence Secretary John Reid and his French counterpart Michele Alliot-Marie.

Informed sources indicate that France is only prepared to pay £50m for access to design work for the shipbuilding programme. The two countries are supposed to be co-operating on the development of three new aircraft-carriers – two for the Royal Navy and the other for France – but Britain is refusing to show the French the designs until the money is paid.

Britain expects to spend about £450m on design and development before reaching a decision, probably next year, on production of the two 65,000-tonne carriers. French industry is unable to quote on costs or work out how to adapt the designs to French navy needs without access to the British data. The project has been approved by both President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Tony Blair who have personally steered the project past previous shoals.

French shipbuilder DCN and defence electronics company Thales are building one carrier while the UK is working on the other carriers with Thales and Europe’s biggest defence group BAE Systems.