The Future Carrier is intended to be a replacement for the current Invincible class carriers and will be placed as a prime contract following a U.K. Ministry of Defence (MOD) competitive tender. This is a key programme, both for BAE Systems and the Royal Navy. It is a major undertaking requiring a new approach to the procurement of a military capability and affordability management. When announcing that the Future Carrier programme was going ahead, the Chief of Defence Procurement said ‘The carriers will be flagships for the Royal Navy: equally they will be a flagship for SMART procurement.'

Future Carrier will enhance the U.K.’s ability to mount joint operations on the world stage. While likely to reduce the number of carriers from the present three Invincible class vessels to two larger, more capable ships, these new carriers must cope with increasingly heavy and more flexible demands. They must have the capability at one end of the spectrum to deploy and operate aircraft effectively without host nation support in a hostile environment and at the other, to provide full humanitarian support operations in a civilian emergency.

A project of the size, complexity and importance of Future Carrier requires a range of skills and capabilities that will test the resources of any company. Consequently it was decided prior to the ITT (Invitation To Tender) release to combine the resources of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronics Systems into a single team known as the Future Carrier Team (the two companies have since merged to form BAE Systems). The Future Carrier Team draws together a wealth of complementary expertise based on real experience. Lessons learned from projects spanning major land, sea and air programmes will continually be applied to deliver a complete Future Carrier solution.

The Team was awarded a competitive contract in November 1999 for the Assessment Phase. This initial phase covers an Analysis of Options period followed by a Risk Reduction programme prior to full design and build.

This is extremely detailed and requires formulating six ship design studies to evaluate and compare the STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing), CTOL (Conventional Take Off and Landing) and STOBAR (Short Take Off But Arrested Landing) alternatives of operating aircraft from different sizes of carrier.

The Future Carrier Team has a clear understanding of the requirement and will capitalise on existing experience, technologies and equipment and on innovative proposals and research programmes to meet the project objectives. It has the depth and breadth of capability required of a prime contractor but accepts that there will be some skill and technology gaps. These gaps will be closed using extensive contacts at home and abroad and by inviting the best the UK, Europe and the US has to offer into the programme. To date, Rolls Royce, Harland and Wolff and Northrop Grumman have become additional members of the team. The Future Carrier’s primary function is to support aircraft and all design decisions must take into account impact on air operations. The Future Carrier Team has a wide knowledge base of all associated aircraft and research programmes. This will be used to assist the design team in understanding the risks and developing effective solutions. The design must be versatile to enable progressive upgrade through the life of the vessel so that technology advances and changes of operational role can be incorporated to improve the through life operational capability.

A strategy for development, procurement and build will be adopted that will promote maximum effective participation of industry, whilst retaining responsibility for system integration and the provision of a whole ship capability. Value for money and risk reduction must be provided. This is entirely consistent with the Team’s prime contractor philosophy of seeking the best capability to suit the requirement.

Even at this early stage the team is working with MOD to help deliver the benefits of the SMART Acquisition environment that is designed to reduce cost and improve programme and functional performance. This entails an entirely new approach in which ‘business as usual ’is not an option. The overall approach is to bring imagination, flair, flexibility and openmindedness to every aspect of this programme. The aim is to establish a trusting, durable partnership between MOD and industry that shares joint ownership with all stakeholders in the programme in order to guarantee better value for money. This is illustrated by the co-location of the CVF Team at Filton, close to the MOD IPT in Abbey Wood.

Characteristics:

• Overall length: 250 to 340m
• Displacement: 30,000 to 50,000 tonnes
• Complement: 1,100 to 1,400 crew

Propulsion
With the programme at such an early stage it is not possible to define what the propulsion system will be.

Armament
To deploy the Future Carrier Borne Aircraft

A decision on the hull type and the down select to two contractors is scheduled to take place this year following the decision on the Future Carrier Borne Aircraft (FCBA). Award for the contract for demonstration and manufacture is set for 2003, with a first of class in-service date of 2012.

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