The Carriers

Not too surprising but the carriers have their next cost increase exposed by the media:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2011/04/aircraft_carrier_costs_to_rise.html

It looks like to accommodate the version of JSF that the American military are likely to go for - the version that needs catapults rather than VTOL to take off.

So the overrun will only be £1bn if we convert just one of the ships, but we are building two - with one likely being an immediate sale to a foreign Navy, so it makes sense to convert both.

It does seem like we set our sights on a yet unbuilt aircraft rather than building something that could be used with a range of aircraft and now we are paying the price that we were hoping to save by being so specific.