The Queen Elizabeth-class carrier programme is traced from the 1996 Anglo-French study to ships commissioned 21 and 23 years later. During the same period, the defence procurement portfolio changed hands 18 times after 1992 and 12 times after 2005, leaving an average tenure of a little over 15 months in the later period. Each incoming officeholder faced incentives to demonstrate visible influence over a programme whose consequences would outlast the appointment. This mismatch makes steady responsibility for cost, design, and policy much harder to maintain.
Notable Point · 25:06-29:34
Carrier procurement outlasts successive ministers
The Queen Elizabeth carrier programme shows the mismatch between projects lasting decades and procurement ministers who may remain only a little over a year.