BRITS BUILDING NEW AIRCRAFT CARRIERS

Dogs of war? Or just some pasty white people building big boats?

The British government has officially given the go-ahead to a 3.9 billion pound ($7.6 billion) program to build two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy. The first of the warships is planned to be in service in 2014.

Confirmation for the program to proceed will trigger the creation of a joint venture pulling together the surface warship yards of BAE Systems and the VT Group. The two companies agreed to merge the two BAE yards on the Clyde in Scotland with VT’s Portsmouth facility in southern England in mid-2007, but completion of the deal was contingent on the government here confirming that the CVF carrier program would enter the production phase.

The joint venture will be Britain’s only major surface warship builder.