Future Aircraft Carrier Project gets new Chief Executive

The project will see Britain's INVINCIBLE Class carriers replaced with larger, more capable vessels and is being delivered through an Alliance between Industry and MoD. The Carriers - at around 65,000 tonnes - will be the largest Royal Navy ships since HMS Vanguard which was commissioned in 1944 and weighed in at 52,260 tonnes.

On 14 December the project moved into its Demonstration Phase - the last key stage before manufacturing begins. At the same time it was announced that the current carrier Alliance team of MoD, BAE Systems, Thales UK and KBR, is to be strengthened with the inclusion of VT Group and Babcock. The new Chief Executive will lead a central management team made up of representatives from the Alliance. This team will provide strategic direction to the project.

Welcoming the appointment, Lord Drayson, Minister for Defence Procurement, said:
"Peter McIntosh has valuable front line experience of the industry, from working as an apprentice through to his current senior management post. Peter also brings with him first hand understanding of ship support. This is important, given our aim of ensuring continuity in our carrier capability by extending the CVF contract to encompass not only the ships' initial support but also the support for the current Invincible class carriers. Peter arrives at a key stage in the Future Carrier programme."

The announcement on 14 December 05 marked the movement of the Future Aircraft Carrier (CVF) project from the MoD's assessment phase into the demonstration phase. This next phase of design work will further remove risk from the project and give greater understanding of projected costs and will allow MoD to make its main investment decision in confidence. At that time, we will announce expected programme costs and in service dates for the ships.

The plan is for the ships to be constructed in 4 'super blocks' at yards owned by members of the newly expanded Alliance, BAE Systems Govan and Barrow, VT Group Portsmouth, and Babcock Rosyth, with final assembly at Rosyth. Other substantial elements of the ship superstructure, roughly some 40% of the overall build, are to be competed.

Related links to this article:
Ministry of Defence



Winners of the e-Government National Awards 2005
The e-Government National Awards 2005, winners were presented with their awards on 25th January - a series of organisations which have transformed services for their target stakeholders.

The winning case studies are at this link

The Awards were supported by the Cabinet Office e-Government Unit, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, the Society of Information Technology Management (Socitm), and SOLACE (Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers). Platinum sponsor was KPMG, and also sponsoring were Jobsgopublic, Entrust, futurate.com, Guardian Recruitment Solutions, TES Jobs, and O2.

The Awards supported the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists Charitable Trust, which runs IT 4 Communities matching IT volunteers and charities with IT needs, and aids registered charities, libraries, educational establishments, churches, hospitals or similar not for profit organisations.