Defence chiefs are planning to launch a £5billion Royal Navy aircraft carrier which cannot carry jets.

The Prince of Wales was one of two new 65,000 ton ships commissioned to carry elite fighter planes.

It was due to come into service by 2018.

But the project is already £1billion over its original £3.9billion budget

This means it will be downgraded to a commando ship carrying only helicopters - saving around £500million.

The decision to downgrade the Prince of Wales means we will have to borrow a French carrier whenever the Queen Elizabeth goes in for a refit.

The as yet uncomfirmed decision to 'cancel' one of the two new aircraft carriers - the final decision, whatever that might be, will not be made public until the next Defence Review, due next year (April I think) - is based simply on the defence chiefs pre-empting Government defence cuts to save money. One carrier will be built as designed, i.e. to carry JSF, whereas the second will be completed as a replacement for HMS Ocean. The knock-on effect of this is that the RAF will only require 50 JSFs.

And if you look at the amount of time the Invincible class spend at sea, it's highly likely the Queen El;izabeth will be nothing more than a huge white elephant slowly rusting away in Portsmouth! as a replacement for HMS Ocean, the Prince of Wales will probably spend a few more days at sea, but not many more considering the name hasn't exactly been lucky for the RN...

In addition to a reduction in the JSF fleet, the RAF's pre-emptive defence cuts will be to not only not fight for the original Typhoon contract to be honoured but to settle for about 187 airframes only. In addition they will scrap the Harrier fleet early, reduce the GR4 fleet to about 40 airframes (extended life programme taking it up to 2025 but only if the £40m development programme is successful). With a reduced GR4 fleet Marham or Lossiemouth will close, along with both Wittering and Cottesmore.

End of the RAF in 2025...???

Ironically, the UK could find itself in a situation where an ally has more frontline fast jetsin the UK than the RAF! I refer of course to the US at Lakenheath. However, with the increased commitment by the US to Afghanistan they could withdraw from Lakenheath to save themselves a few bucks!

Whatever, the banking crisis will indirectly have a major impact on the UK's armed forces, with only the Army gaining anything like the minimum resources it needs, if only because it's already poltically embarrassing for Government to be told they're not supporting the troops in Afghanistan! And it won't make any difference if the Conservatives get elected, God forbid!