12:37pm Thursday 9th September 2010
By Nigel Burton
THE Royal Navy's new aircraft carriers may never be built - putting hundreds of North-East jobs in jeopardy, it has been revealed.
BAE Systems, one of the main contractors on the £5 billion capital ships project, has been asked by the Government to look at the implications of scrapping the project.
Government officials are believed to be considering a drastic plan to cut their losses, despite already investing around £1 billion into the ships.
Unions have warned that scrapping the carriers - the first of which is due in six years - would threaten the very future of military shipbuilding in this country.
Any move to cancel the ships, or just build one instead of two, would have a significant impact on the North-East.
So far companies on Teesside and Tyneside have won carrier contracts worth more than £233m guaranteeing hundreds of manufacturing jobs.
The news will bring back painful memories for the senior service.
More than four decades ago the Navy's previous generation carriers - known as the CVA01 - was scrapped in a short sighted defence review.
They were eventually replaced by flat tops so small the Navy called them through deck cruisers.
The loss of the CVA01 carriers almost led to Britain losing the Falklands War due to a chronic lack of air power and is now seen as one of the worst decisions taken by the MoD during the Sixties.
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