IN FOCUS: Why the UK's carriers will not be 'airfields at sea'

Stick or twist? That is the choice facing UK defence secretary Philip Hammond, who is poised to announce a decision on the future of the nation's carrier strike ambitions and choice of embarked combat aircraft.

The main issue to be decided is whether to keep faith with a decision made in late 2010 to switch allegiance from Lockheed's short take-off and vertical landing F-35B to the manufacturer's C-model carrier variant. Attributed at the time to a desire to acquire the stealthy aircraft in its "more capable, less expensive and longer-range" version, the act has had massive cost implications for the Royal Navy's future aircraft carrier programme at a time of severe budget-tightening.

Studies continue to determine the likely price of adapting one or both of the UK's future carriers to accommodate an electromagnetic launch system and arresting gear to support operations with the F-35C, but the possibility of Hammond soon approving a switch back to the STOVL aircraft appears a real one, given his determination to balance the Ministry of Defence's finances.

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