Warships

Lord Hamilton of Epsom Excerpts

Monday 11th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

The strategy will cover all those topics. It is very much about looking at how many ships we wish to build and in what order; looking at the question from the industry perspective as well as the customer perspective; how many we can afford; and what the productivity rate should be. As the noble Lord rightly said, this regular drumbeat of production is the way that we can maintain not only the manufacturing flow but the skills as well.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

My Lords, will my noble friend—

[Lord Touhig (Lab)]

My Lords, following on from my noble friend—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

I am so sorry to interrupt the noble Lord but it is the turn of the Conservative Benches. We will then have time to come through to the Labour Front Bench.

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom]

Does my noble friend agree that however wonderful the two new aircraft carriers are, they are too big for the jump jets that we are putting on them?

[Earl Howe]

No, I would not. The F35 has been very carefully selected in order to be able to work from the carriers, and it will do so very effectively, as has been proved in the United States on its carriers.