Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the acquisition cost is of (a) a Queen Elizabeth Class carrier, (b) an air group of 24 F-35Bs with merlin helicopters, (c) two type 45 destroyers, (d) two type 23 frigates, (e) one Astute class submarine and (f) other support ships for a Queen Elizabeth Class carrier Battle Group.

The acquisition cost of the two Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers was c. £6 billion.

The build cost of a Type 45 destroyer was calculated in 2013 to be £633 million (Official Report 2 December 2016 Question 55378).

Build costs of the Type 23 frigates varied between £92 and £120 million per ship over the period November 1992 to September 2002. (Official Report 2 July 2013, col. 610w).

For the acquisition costs of Astute Class submarines, I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 12 September 2023 to Question 197698.

The support ships assigned to a Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier battle group and the composition of the embarked air group are dependent upon the nature of the tasking of the battle group and it is not therefore possible to provide a singular acquisition cost for such supporting shipping or for the air group.

F-35B aircraft are procured in batches and the unit price per batch has varied as production has proceeded. There is therefore no single acquisition cost for a group of 24 aircraft as the overall cost will depend on the batch from which each individual aircraft was procured.

There is no fixed ratio of F-35B aircraft to Merlin helicopters in a Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carrier embarked air group. Moreover, two different marks of Merlin helicopter may be embarked dependent on operational requirements. It is not therefore possible to provide a single acquisition cost for the Merlin helicopters that may be embarked with 24 F-35B aircraft.

As illustrated by the information provided in respect of Type 23 frigates it is not, for any class of ship or submarine, usually the case that the overall acquisition cost is shared equally across the class. First of Class vessels will incur a range of non-recurring costs that later vessels do not. Variations in price per vessel may also arise from increasing industry efficiency as construction progresses and from detailed changes in specification between vessels of the same class.