Navy surrenders one new aircraft carrier in budget battle

[UK]
The Royal Navy has agreed to sacrifice one of its two new aircraft carriers to save about £8.2 billion from the defence budget.

The admirals, who have battled for a decade to secure the two new 65,000-ton carriers, have been forced to back down because of the soaring cost of the American-produced Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft due to fly off them.

The move will leave the navy without a carrier when the Queen Elizabeth goes into refit, leaving open the possibility that it might have to borrow one from the French navy.

In a meeting with Brown last year, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had suggested that refits of French and British aircraft carriers should be 'co-ordinated'.

[Two (2) carriers for all of Britain - and that's the ramped-up sum.

Again, when next enlightened socialist points to Europe managing to survive its high welfare budgets, remind them that they've mortgaged their defense capabilities the past 30 years to do so.]

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