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Strategic Defence and Security Review

Given that the Government are going ahead with building both carriers, I think that that is not exactly gratitude. The Queen Elizabeth is not being ““put back”” in terms of its manufacture. Once it has been manufactured, we will fit the ““cats and traps””—the catapults and arrester gear—to the operational carrier, so that it can then work with the carrier version of the joint strike fighter, which is a better aircraft than the one that the last Government ordered. That will make it fully interoperable with our closest allies, the Americans and the French. So there is not a delay in the production of the carriers, as the hon. Gentleman says. Some extra equipment needs to be added.