UK to confirm order for two aircraft carriers

Britain is set to sign a long-awaited £4 billion (€5.014) deal to build two aircraft carriers which will be the Royal Navy's largest ever ships.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "It is going to signal that we are going to go ahead," she said.

Final signing of the contract had been expected earlier this year but was delayed as Britain's defence ministry struggled to line up its spending plans with its budget.

The aircraft carrier contract will be awarded to a shipbuilding joint venture to be set up between two British companies, BAE Systems Plc and support services company VT Group Plc.

BAE, Europe's largest defence contractor, and VT have long been ready to finalise their joint venture, but will not do so until the government is ready to put pen to paper on the carrier manufacturing contract.

Last July, Britain gave the go-ahead for plans to build two aircraft carriers, triggering the deal to merge operations at BAE and VT, Britain's two largest shipbuilders.

The carriers are to be called Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales and are due to enter service in 2014 and 2016, the ministry announced at the time. That is later than the 2012 and 2014 targets cited in original plans, which date back to 1998.

The 65,000-tonne carriers, which will be the largest ships ever to sail with the Royal Navy, are expected to each carry 36 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter combat jets, being built by Lockheed Martin Corp, as well as four early warning aircraft.

The shipbuilding joint venture, under which VT has an option to sell its stake to BAE, is key to VT's attempts to be entirely focused on support services.