§ 17. Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)If he will make a statement on the level of aircraft carrier provision. [135560]
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram)The United Kingdom's aircraft carrier capability is currently provided by three CVS class vessels. As decided in the strategic defence review, and subsequently confirmed by the new chapter, our plan is that they will be replaced by two larger and more capable CVF class vessels with target in-service dates of 2012 and 2015. The carriers will be the biggest and most powerful warships ever constructed in the UK and the most capable carrier force outside the United States.
§ Mr. BercowI am grateful to the Minister of State, but I am afraid that that soothing bromide is no better for me than that which he offered a few moments ago to my hon. Friend the Member for New Forest, East (Dr. Lewis). The Secretary of State for Defence told the House in January that the new aircraft carriers would
rank alongside the most formidable and complex weapons systems deployed by any country anywhere in the world."—[Official Report, 30 January 2003; Vol. 398, c. 1026.]We were also led to believe that each would be of the order of 60,000 tonnes. How does the right hon. Gentleman therefore expect us to believe that the much smaller-scale versions that he now envisages will have anything like the same punch or versatility, because the naval architect responsible for the project says that they certainly will not do so?
§ Mr. IngramI hesitate to comment to the hon. Gentleman that size seems to matter to him, and I hesitate to use the word "bromide" in relation to that. In my earlier explanation, I tried to point out that that is a maturing design and capability measurement—"maturing" means getting the best capability. What the Opposition have said is that they have taken a figure given in the strategic defence review, which was between 30,000 and 40,000 tonnes for the size of the ships, against the earlier announcement, and they are now saying that that will be the size of the ships. However, we 533 should wait and see what outcome the whole design process delivers. The truth is that the new ship will still be two and a half times the size of the current carrier—a formidable aircraft carrier capability, alongside that which will be delivered from its decks.