The cost of the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers has risen by between £1 billion and £2 billion, it was reported.
Building HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales could end up costing the taxpayer £7 billion, the BBC said, up from the £5.2 billion expected at the time of the Strategic Defence and Security Review last autumn.
The ships, which are to be converted so they are compatible with US jets, escaped the axe in the defence review despite massive cuts elsewhere in the Ministry of Defence budget.
They are being built by the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, consisting of BAE systems, Babcock and Thales. HMS Queen Elizabeth will be the first to enter service, in 2019.
A Ministry of Defence spokes-man said final costs were “yet to be agreed”.
“The conversion of the Queen Elizabeth Class, announced in the SDSR, will allow us to operate the carrier variant of the Joint Strike Fighter that carries a greater payload, has a longer range and is cheaper to purchase,” he said.
“This will give our new carriers, which will be in service for 50 years, greater capability and interoperability with our allies. Final costs are yet to be agreed and detailed work is ongoing. We expect to take firm decisions in late 2012.”
Shadow defence secretary Jim Murphy said: “This is yet more evidence that the government’s rushed defence review was not thoroughly thought-through or costed.
“Ministers must now be clear with the British public about the real costs of their decisions. This could be a £2 billion bungle.
“The government has totally mishandled the UK’s carrier capability and now needs to be totally clear about whether both carriers will be completed and capable of deployment.
“The SDSR is unravelling and ministers must give the country confidence that they have a grip of the budget and equipment programme.”
A Downing Street official said: “Final costs have yet to be agreed. Detailed work is ongoing and we expect to take firm decisions in late 2012.” She dismissed suggestions that doubts about the final costs may prevent the carrier project going ahead.
“As far as we are concerned, the decision has been made in the SDSR and we are going to have new carriers and they will provide us with greater capability and interoperability and be cheaper to purchase,” said the official.
“In some respects, the SDSR is an ongoing process and there will be decisions to be taken in this spending review and further down the track.”