Scottish job fears as MPs call on MoD to scrap plans to upgrade defences

DEFENCE chiefs came under pressure yesterday to abandon delayed plans to build two aircraft carriers and replace the ageing Nimrod aircraft.

Either move could lead to massive job losses in Scotland as the new Nimrod surveillance planes would replace those at RAF Kinloss, while the £3.9 billion aircraft carriers would bring work to Rosyth dockyards and to the Clyde and Govan.

But MPs on the Commons defence committee warned that delays and cost-overruns on a number of orders for new defence equipment were now so great that "salami-slicing" projects to keep them closer to budget may no longer be possible.

The report highlighted the Ministry of Defence's own deadline of 31 March for final contracts to be signed on the aircraft carriers. They are due to enter service in 2014 and 2016.

This means an announcement has to be made by Monday – but yesterday the MoD tried to distance itself from the deadline, given earlier this year to MPs by David Gould, the chief operating officer of the MoD's defence equipment and support agency.

According to the report, the £2.8 billion programme for 12 new Nimrod MRA4 aircraft is seven-and-a-half years late and £787 million over budget.

There are also delays with the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft being bought to replace the Harrier jump-jets, which first came into service in the 1960s. At least 72 Joint Strike Fighters – 36 on each new aircraft carrier – are required, but plans to buy 150 have been described as "cloud cuckoo land" and Harriers will have to be used until at least 2018.

James Arbuthnot, the Commons defence committee chairman, said: "For too long, the MoD has had an unaffordable equipment programme and needs to confront the problem rather than giving the usual response of salami-slicing and moving programmes to the right.

"It is disappointing that the first of the navy's two new aircraft carriers will not have new aircraft to operate from it when it enters service because of delays on the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft programme.

"The Nimrod MRA4 aircraft programme goes from bad to worse – almost £800 million over budget and forecast to be nearly eight years late. The MoD must carefully examine whether it should cut its losses and withdraw from this sorry saga."

Angus Robertson, the SNP leader in Westminster whose constituency includes RAF Kinloss, said there was a pressing need to replace the Nimrods currently in service. They were introduced in the 1980s and one crashed in Afghanistan in 2006 with the loss of 14 lives.

Mr Robertson said: "The safety of the Nimrod crew must come first. I am concerned that if the MRA4 programme is cancelled, then the current, ageing aircraft would need to keep on working for an extended period, despite concerns about their safety."

The aircraft carriers are due to be built by a partnership between BaE Systems and VT Group, but there have been delays setting up a joint company to carry out the work.

An MoD spokeswoman said there was no question of the aircraft carriers' contract being dropped. Associated contracts worth £70 million were signed this month.

TIME RUNNING OUT FOR NEW VESSELS
THE Royal Navy has only two aircraft carriers – HMS Ark Royal and HMS Illustrious – in active service. A third, HMS Invincible, is "onside" at Portsmouth after retiring in 2005. It is due to be sold in 2010.

This has sparked concerns that, with their larger replacements, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, not due to enter service to 2014 and 2016 respectively, the navy will be left under-resourced at a time when the cost of front-line operations in Iraq and Afghanistan is soaring.

Ark Royal is due to be withdrawn from service in 2012 and Illustrious in 2015, but yesterday's report from the Commons defence committee warned that time was running out for work to start on the new ships, with the first due to be delivered in six years and the final contracts still unsigned.

Both Illustrious and Ark Royal are currently at sea. The navy refuses to say where for security reasons. In January, Illustrious headed a multinational task force patrolling the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East and South-east Asia.

Defence spending for the 2008-9 financial year is £34 billion. The defence minister, Baroness Taylor, said: "The size and complexity of the MoD's equipment programmes, with their challenges in delivery and technology, must not be underestimated."