Les debo la traduccion porque no estoy en casa.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6888962.ece
Navy surrenders one new aircraft carrier in budget battle
Michael Smith
25-10-2009
The Royal Navy has agreed to sacrifice one of its two new aircraft carriers
to save about £8.2 billion from the defence budget.
The admirals, who have battled for a decade to secure the two new 65,000-ton
carriers, have been forced to back down because of the soaring cost of the
American-produced Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft due to fly off them.
The move is a blow to the navy’s prestige and has come on the heels of
Gordon Brown’s announcement last month that he was axing one of the navy’s
four Trident nuclear deterrent submarines.
It is too late for the navy to renege on contracts to build the two
carriers, the Queen Elizabeth, due to go into service in 2016, and the
Prince of Wales, due to follow in 2018. Although the second carrier will be
built, it will be used as an amphibious commando ship, with only helicopters
on board instead of JSF aircraft.
The move will leave the navy without a carrier when the Queen Elizabeth goes
into refit, leaving open the possibility that it might have to borrow one
from the French navy. In a meeting with Brown last year, Nicolas Sarkozy,
the French president, had suggested that refits of French and British
aircraft carriers should be co-ordinated.
The decision to have only one new aircraft carrier will cut the number of
JSFs to be flown by RAF squadrons from 138 to about 50, saving £7.6 billion.
At current prices, the aircraft will cost close to £90m each, but this could
rise to more than £100m.
Using the Prince of Wales as a commando ship will save a further £600m, the
amount that would have been needed to replace the amphibious landing ship
Ocean, which is due to go out of service in 2018.
The decision to cut the number of JSF aircraft has been agreed by senior
navy and air force commanders in discussions preparing for the strategic
defence review.
Both Labour and the Conservatives are committed to conducting a strategic
defence review after the general election, which must be held by the late
spring.
A senior Royal Navy officer said: “We always knew that the real cost of the
carrier project is the JSF fleet to go on them. It would cost us at least
£12 billion if we bought all the aircraft we originally asked for. We are
waking up to the fact that all those planes are unaffordable. More than half
of the £5 billion contracts to build the two new carriers have been
contracted, so it is too late to get out of building the ships. This way at
least we are covered when Ocean goes out of service.”
Since both aircraft carriers will still be built, there are unlikely to be
job losses at the Rosyth ship yards, close to Brown’s constituency. The JSF
aircraft are being built in Fort Worth, Texas, with the involvement of BAE
Systems.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6888962.ece
for. If the RAF is to standardise on the Typhoon, then they'll need at least to recieve the full order of 232 to replace the Tornado F3s, Jaguars AND the Tornado GR4s, though that still won't be enough. Again, the GR4s don't need to be replaced just yet, they have more than a decade of front line service left, so these descisions are all a bit premature. Why not wait until the economy picks up and make plans based on that? 2009 is nearly over, as is the recession (trust me!). Things will look a lot different in a couple of years, and all these scaremongering stories will look as absurd as they really are in the cold light of day.
