LONDON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Britain and France are mulling to share their aircraft carriers in a bid to retain firepower while cutting costs.
The Times newspaper in London reports Britain and France would announce the carrier sharing plan at a summit in November. Both nations would pool their carriers in a way that at least one of three vessels -- one French, two British -- is on patrol at any time. The move would allow Britain to downgrade or scrap altogether the second of two carriers the British navy has ordered.
Neither Paris nor London would confirm the report but it comes just before Friday's meeting between Britain's Defense Secretary Liam Fox with his French counterpart Herve Morin. They are expected to have a news conference.
"Liam has made it clear that we want more co-operation as we have to face up to the world we are living in," the newspaper quoted an unnamed British Ministry of Defense source as saying. "The advantage is that if we are going to have one carrier, then at least we can project our power on the sea even if we go down to a single carrier."
Britain is under growing pressure to cut defense costs and the carriers, which critics say are a remnant of Cold War security strategies, are among the most expensive procurement projects ever.
The two British carriers, to be called HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, are built by a consortium including BAE Systems and Babcock International from Britain and France's Thales. They are to replace two aging carriers that these days are mostly in dock.
Thousands of workers at six British shipyards are involved in the $8 billion project, with roughly one-quarter of the work completed. Naturally, the industry is dreading the prospect that one carrier might be downgraded or scrapped altogether.
"We have got a contract to deliver two aircraft carriers," Steve Carrol, project director of the carriers for BAE Systems, told The Times. "You can see for yourself it is well on. We've spent over ($1.5 billion) on procurement and supply chain. It is here. It's real."
The plan is controversial not only for its economic implications. The current carrier design makes it impossible for French planes to land on and take off from a British carrier. And critics say the two countries' security interests are different enough to complicate such a carrier-sharing plan.
France operates the powerful Charles de Gaulle, a nuclear-powered vessel capable of launching fixed wing aircraft but it is alone in its class in the French fleet and often at home undergoing maintenance.
"Using each other's carriers would require decisions to be made at the strategic level so that national aims on any given operation would be the same," a British navy source told The Times.
