So this government is just as useless at estimating costs as the previous one, that's good to know. £500m to £1.8bn is just ridiculous though. How can it cost that much to modify a ship they haven't built yet??
How does changing back to the original plan fit with the SDSR's emphasis on interoperability and pooling resources with allies, particularly the USA and France? And what about the claimed whole-life cost savings from using the cheaper and easier to maintain F35C for both RAF and RN?
What does this change, if confirmed, mean for fitting out PoW with EMALS? Is that no longer needed? I suppose if would mean that we could make use of both carriers, seeing as they will be of the same configuration again..