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.
It's not just the fact that the Navy won't have enough surface ships to protect the carriers or that traditional military aeroplanes will have been rendered redundant by pilotless drones, or even that the extremely expensive new strike fighters will not be available on time so that Harriers (yes, the vertical take-off aircraft that don't need massive new carriers) will be used instead.
Meanwhile, ageing and dangerous Nimrods will be kept in the air, while troops are shuttled out in ancient RAF Tristars to Afghanistan where there is a desperate shortage of helicopters needed to avoid the troops having to rely on lightly-armoured landrovers for transport. (See here.)
But, hey, as long as spending money on carriers keeps the shipyards going and Labour MPs in a job , then it must be for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
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