Thales open to joint project on French carrier

THALES, the French defence company, said yesterday that Paris should look seriously at building its new aircraft carrier in co-operation with Britain.

Such a move, helping to cement European defence co-operation, would bring work to Britain and might also help the UK Government to cut the cost of its own carrier programme.

Thales, one third owned by the French Government, is working with Britain’s BAE Systems to build two carriers for the UK, a deal initially worth about £3 billion.

France must decide soon whether to build a nuclear-powered carrier or go for a conventionally powered vessel. The British carriers will not be nuclear powered.

Jacques Chirac, the French President, and Tony Blair discussed co-operation on the carriers at their summit two weeks ago. The UK Government is open to the idea so long as it does not delay its own programme. “Basically, the ball is in France’s court,” said a Whitehall source.

Thales, which was designing the UK vessels, has previously kept the two carrier programmes entirely separate.

But yesterday Alex Dorrian, head of Thales’s UK operations, said: “I think commonality and working together is a good idea. Anything that saves on cost should be looked at.”

Money could be saved on building, repairing and maintaining the vessels, he said. “I’m not saying it is going to happen, but it stands to reason that there would be savings.”

France’s Charles de Gaulle carrier is due for a major refit that could take it out of service for more than a year, so Paris must make a decision soon on future requirements. Mr Dorrian expects the decision in the first quarter of next year.

The UK carriers are being built at several shipyards, including VT Group on the South Coast, before final assembly and fitting-out at Rosyth in Scotland.

There has been speculation that the UK carriers will be shortened because the original design for the 60,000 to 65,000-tonne vessels cannot be built within budget.

Mr Dorrian acknowledged that there might be trade-offs to keep the project within budget. “You have to look at what defensive aids you want on the ship and how many planes you want on it,” he said.

Mr Dorrian said a decision on size would not be made for up to another six months.