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MOD signs £3.2bn order for two aircraft carriers
03 July 2008 17:04
The Ministry of Defence has signed contracts worth £3.2bn to build the UK's biggest-ever aircraft carriers.
The 280-metre-long HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be capable of carrying up to 40 aircraft. The contracts will create or secure 3,000 jobs at Govan, in Glasgow, 1,600 at Rosyth, in Fife, 1,200 in Portsmouth and 400 in Barrow in Furness.
HMS Queen Elizabeth will come into service in 2014 and HMS Prince of Wales in 2016. The total cost of both vessels, including additional features like electronics, will be almost £4bn. Each ship will be a similar size to the ocean liner, the QE2, with a flight deck the size of three football pitches.This will make them more than three times the size of the existing Invincible-class carriers. Each 65,000-tonne vessel will be crewed by 1,450 sailors and airmen.
The building of the two aircraft carriers is expected to create or secure a total of 10,000 jobs across the UK.