France Wasted Tens of Millions of Dollars On Joint France-UK Aircraft Carrier Program

February 23, 2014. David Pugliese - Defence Watch

Jane’s is reporting that French government auditors have discovered that the French Ministry of Defence spent U.S. $274 million to study the potential for a joint France-UK aircraft carrier program. Almost half of that was spent on contract studies that were judged obsolete, it added.

In 2006-07, France entered the UK’s Carrier Vessel Future program to look at building two Queen Elizabeth-class carriers – one for the Royal Navy and one for the French navy. The joint project was suspended in 2008, and cancelled in 2013.

The auditors determined that savings from a joint program would have resulted in about $60 million U.S.