§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the original in-service date was for 325W landing platform dock Bulwark; what the current in-service date is; what the reasons are for the changes; and if he will make a statement. [131933]
§ Mr. IngramThe original in-service date for the landing platform dock Bulwark was March 2003. The current planned in-service date is March 2005. There have been a number of manufacturing, project management and productivity difficulties experienced at the BAe Systems Barrow shipyard which caused slippage to HMS Bulwark's sister ship, HMS Albion. Resources were concentrated in HMS Albion in order to minimise the delays. This caused a consequential delay to HMS Bulwark programme.
There are opportunities to improve upon the ISD of March 2005 and the Ministry of Defence will continue to work hard with BAe Systems with the aim of accelerating the programme and achieving ISD some weeks earlier than currently forecast.