This morning we posted about the possibility of the immediate lay-up of the UK’s flagship, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. We now read that one of the two new £3 billion aircraft carriers will never carry aircraft and may sail  into lay-up or be put up for sale, shortly after she is delivered.

Navy aircraft carrier will be sold after three years – and never carry jets

The Government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review will also confirm that Britain will not have an effective “carrier strike” capability – a working aircraft carrier equipped with fighter jets – until 2020.

David Cameron had wanted to scrap one of the two carriers, the largest and most expensive vessels in British naval history, but the review found that contracts signed by the previous government meant that doing so would end up costing the taxpayer more than going ahead with both. As a result, the two carriers will enter service, but one will be mothballed as soon as possible.