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Jonathan Beale sees the new carrier taking shape in Rosyth
MPs have raised fresh concerns about the cost of fighter jets for the Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers, warning of "uncontrolled growth" in budgets.
The Commons Public Accounts Committee said billions of pounds had already gone "down the drain" during the carrier strike procurement programme.
An order for jump jets for the two new carriers was scrapped in 2010, only to be reversed 18 months later.
Ministers said they were balancing cost control with state of art technology.
Defence secretary Philip Hammond said he welcomed the committee's recognition the carrier contract signed by the last government in 2007 was not fit for purpose - and that the Ministry of Defence was negotiating with the industry to bring costs under control.
Aircraft switchThe cross-party committee - which assesses value for money in government spending - said it still regarded the prestige project as "a huge technical and commercial risk" and was not convinced that the MoD had it under control.
The project, expected to cost £3.65bn when it was approved six years ago, was now on course to rise to £5.5bn, it said in a new report.
Assembly work is continuing on one carrier - HMS Queen Elizabeth - but it will not be finished until 2016 at the earliest, and may not be ready for action until 2020.
The construction of the other - HMS Prince of Wales - will overlap and the current plan is for one of them to be operational while the other is kept in "extended readiness".
Earlier this year, the National Audit Office warned that the change of mind over which fighter aircraft would operate from the carriers would cost taxpayers £74m and the original decision had been based on "immature data and flawed assumptions".
The Labour government had placed orders for two carriers to be equipped with the F-35B variant of the US-built joint strike fighter (JSF), which is capable of short take-off and vertical landing.
In its 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the coalition said that it favoured the F-35C version, which has a longer range and can carry more weapons, but announced a U-turn in February 2012, reverting to the original aircraft for logistical and financial reasons.
It said the switch would save £1.2bn over ten years and delaying a decision would have incurred even greater costs.
'Ongoing saga'But MPs said officials had made basic errors in their previous calculations, such as failing to factor in the cost of inflation and VAT.
"This u-turn is the latest in an ongoing saga that has seen billions of pounds of taxpayers money down the drain," Margaret Hodge, the Labour MP who chairs the committee, said.
The committee also suggests the overall contract is not "fit for purpose" as there are not enough incentives for contractors to cut costs.
Their report also casts doubt on the MoD's claim that the new carrier-based strike force will be fully operational by 2020, saying a decision to delay investment in Crowsnest, a helicopter-based early warning system for the ships, means it will be two years late.
Ministers have rejected suggestions this will undermine the effectiveness of the carrier strike aircraft, saying maritime surveillance capabilities will be augmented by other platforms and systems, including state-of-the-art radar on the Type 45 destroyers.
The government has insisted it has got to grips with wastefulness in procurement and set clear goals for the years ahead, announcing a 10-year plan to spend £160bn on equipment.
But following the retirement of HMS Invincible and HMS Ark Royal, the UK only has one aircraft carrier - HMS Illustrious - at its disposal and this cannot be used by strike aircraft, only helicopters - leading to warnings of a decade-long capability gap.
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