UK delays prestigious aircraft carrier programme

London,UK: In a statement UK defence secretary John Hutton has said that the 4 billion pound ($6 billion) construction of two Royal Navy aircraft carriers will be delayed by between 1-2 years. "We have concluded that there is scope for bringing more closely into line the introduction of the Joint Combat Aircraft and the aircraft carrier," Hutton said in a statement.

"This is likely to mean delaying the in-service date of the new carriers by 1-2 years. Construction is already under way and will continue."

The carriers are each due to carry 36 Lockheed Martin fighter jets but industry reports say these will not be ready till 2017.

The warships are due to be built by BVT Surface Fleet shipbuilding, a joint venture between British defence companies VT Group Plc and BAE Systems Plc and to enter service in 2014 and 2016.

The new carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince Of Wales will be the biggest and most powerful surface warships ever constructed for the Royal Navy, and represent a step change in capability, enabling the delivery of increased strategic effect and influence around the world.

It is not clear whether the minister's statement did include the Astute nuclear submarine programme as well.

The UK defence budget has come under pressure because of financial pressures on the country's budget.

Steel-cutting on the first of the two ships is scheduled for mid-2009, and at its peak the project is expected to create or sustain 10,000 jobs.

A Financial Times report last week said that the government could push back delivery of the carriers by as much as two years in an attempt to reduce an estimated 2 billion pound deficit in this year's defence budget.

Even as tax revenues plummet in an economic downturn, military spend continues to be high as the country operates on two war fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both the carriers are expected to each carry 36 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter combat jets built by a consortium led by US aerospace group Lockheed Martin.

Meanwhile, the government also withdrew preferred bidder status from General Dynamics for a new armoured vehicle under its multi-billion pound Future Rapid Effect System programme.

The defence ministry announced in May it had provisionally selected the US defence firm's Piranha 5 design for the Utility class of its proposed new armoured vehicles.

But Hutton said the government and General Dynamics had failed to reach a workable commercial agreement on the deal.