3.3 As part of planning, to ensure sufficient military forces are ready for operations, the Department has had a requirement since at least 2004 for a classified number of submarines to be available to deploy at short notice. To meet this requirement the Department had 11 Trafalgar and Swiftsure Class submarines in service in 2004 - the oldest of which had entered service in 1974. To replace these submarines, the Department planned to purchase up to eight Astute Class submarines, but in 2007 this was revised to seven.
3.4 Figure 14 on page 28 provides a summary of the Astute Class submarine programme to date.
Figure 13 | |
Project | Strategic Defence and Security Review impact |
Astute Class submarines | The Review delayed the Successor nuclear deterrent submarine in-service date to 2028, so the Astute build programme was slowed to avoid a production gap in the submarine construction industry. The Department is also planning to deliver savings over the whole submarine business over the next decade, through the Submarine Enterprise Performance Programme (SEPP). Figure 14 provides a summary of the Astute Class submarine programme to date. |
Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft | The programme was cancelled. Figure 16 provides a summary of the Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft to date. |
Joint Combat Aircraft | Aircraft type to be purchased changed from the short take off, vertical landing aircraft to the carrier type. |
Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier | Both carriers will be completed, but only one will become operational. The operational carrier will be fitted with catapults and arrestors, delaying entry into service from 2016 to 2020. |
Tornado GR4 | Fleet to be reduced. |
Sentinel surveillance aircraft | To be withdrawn from service, once no longer required for operations in Afghanistan. |
NOTES 1 Analysis of changes to the Joint Combat Aircraft and the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers are covered in our report Carrier Strike, published in July 2011. 2 Tornado and Sentinel are already in-service and therefore not included in the Major Projects' population. Source: Securing Britain in an Age of Uncertainty: The Strategic Defence and Security Review 2010: www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_191634.pdf | |
Figure 14 | |
Original date of the main investment decision |
|
Boats one to three | March 1997 |
Boat four | May 2007 |
Boats five to seven | Not yet approved |
Original approved cost |
|
Boats one to three | £2.23 billion (with an additional £0.6 billion approved in both 2003 and 2007) |
Boat four | £1.28 billion |
Boats five and six | £0.88 billion (initial items only) |
Boat seven | Not yet approved |
Total programme approvals are currently expected to be £9.75 billion for all seven boats. |
|
Total increase in forecast cost | £1.9 billion |
Technical problems and design changes | Boats one to four: £0.9 billion |
Delaying the build programme | Boats one to four: £0.4 billion |
| Boats five to seven: £0.6 billion |
Total spend to 31 March 2011 | £4.3 billion |
Original approved in-service date | Boats one to three: June 2005 |
Total delay to in-service date since original approval | Boats one to three: +58 months |
Additional delay to initial operating capability through delaying the build programme | average of 28 months per boat |
Programme history For the first six years the programme experienced technical difficulties, which were reported in Major Projects Report 2003. These arose because the Astute Class was the first United Kingdom submarine programme to use computer aided design techniques, and the complexities were underestimated. This contributed to a cost increase of £886 million and a time delay of 43 months to the programme. In 2009, £139 million was removed from the Astute budget for the period 2009-2013, as part of the Department's 2008 Equipment Examination to reduce short-term budget pressures. This was done by slowing down production of boats two to four and deferring boats five to seven. This increased total programme costs in the longer term by a net £400 million. In 2010, an option was taken to defer introducing Successor and delay the Astute programme to maintain steady production. This added another £330 million to the total programme costs and delayed the in-service date for boat four by 16 months. This year, the Department decided to further defer introducing Successor and to slow down the build programme of Astute. This added £266 million to the Astute Class submarines programme, bringing the total to nearly £1 billion from delaying the build programme. This also caused a 13-month delay to the in-service date for Astute boat four, bringing the total delay on this boat to 29 months. | |
NOTES 1 Astute boat one achieved its in-service date in April 2010. 2 Additional average delay of 28 months is measured between initial operating capability before the Equipment Examination in 2008 and the initial operating capability at 31 March 2011. Initial operating capability is when the boat is available to the Royal Navy for operations. Source: Project summary sheets 2000-2011 | |