British Navy may be Forced to Accept Smaller Warships

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 14, 2003

British Navy may be Forced to Accept Smaller Warships

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British Royal Navy was told it may have to accept warships smaller than agreed earlier this year because there is a big gap in funds and the contractor BAE Systems would be unable to build the warships it desired with the original budget, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

The Royal Navy has been told there are no extra funds available,the newspaper reported. So planners have to consider designing smaller and less sophisticated ship.

British defense giant BAE Systems told the Ministry of Defense that its two new aircraft carriers, budgeted at 2.8 billion poundsor 4.5 billion US dollars in January, will now cost 4 billion pounds or 6.42 billion US dollars.

Originally the plan was for the warships to carry 48 aircraft, and smaller ships could carry only 20.

Earlier this year, the government was forced to pay 700 millionpounds or 1.155 billion US dollars to bail the company out after cost overran on the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft.

BAE won the lead role on the aircraft carrier contract after a battle with French contractor Thales.

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