Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 16
Twenty-Third Report - Delivering carrier strike
Published 13 Nov 2020
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Delivering carrier strike All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department said that if it is to deploy one carrier at a time it would not need all 138 aircraft. It acknowledged, however, that it will need more than 48 Lightning II jets to sustain Carrier Strike operations through to the 2050s and beyond.41 It told us that the decision about how many more jets it would need had not yet been made.42 The Department is currently debating its future requirement for Lightning II numbers as part of its wider Air Combat Strategy. This debate revolves around its plans across all future air-to-air and air-to-surface combat operations and the replacement of Typhoon from the 2030s. It told us that un-crewed autonomous aircraft working alongside crewed aircraft will be part of its solution, and that a key part of the future combat air programme was understanding the right mix of planes, bearing in mind evolving technologies.43 Nevertheless, the Department was certain that the future combat air system, no matter how it is designed, would be a very expensive part of defence spending.44
From: Public Accounts Committee, Twenty-Third Report - Delivering carrier strike (HC 684), 13 November 2020
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 4 February 2021.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it agrees with the Committee's recommendation on six of its recommendations (numbered 1 to 6), and disagrees with one part, on the whole life cost of buying more than 48 jets.
- On future ambitions for Carrier Strike, the government agrees; the department says that once the Integrated Review is published it "will evaluate the outcomes in detail to refine its policy ambitions", with any future investments captured in the costed 10-year Equipment Plan.
- On the cost of more than 48 jets, the government disagrees, stating it is "not possible" to expand the costing model beyond 48 aircraft until the Integrated Review results are known and a formal mandate change to the Lightning Programme is issued.
- On Lightning II expenditure, the government agrees, but notes that the private briefing agreed with the Committee for 20 January 2021 "does not meet the recommendation timeline (within one month)".
- On Crowsnest, the government agrees and says a written brief on how it has addressed the late delivery "will be provided to the Committee in February 2021"; full capability is to be achieved in 2023.