§ Mr. HancockTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to reduce the size of the proposed new aircraft carriers. [154627]
§ Mr. IngramThe Future Carrier programme is currently in its Assessment Phase. The Department has not sought to fix the dimensions of the aircraft carriers during this stage. Instead, parameters such as the ships' size will reflect the design required to meet our capability requirements. It is to be expected that the design of the ships will evolve as the Department seeks to balance, in conjunction with industry, overall performance, time and cost as part of normal Assessment Phase activity.