The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) unveiled its plans for two new giant aircraft carriers this week. The contracts to build and equip the ships are worth almost £4 billion, and the carriers will be the largest ever built in Britain, but who will really foot the bill for them?

The two carriers, to be named Queen Elisabeth and Prince Of Wales, could fit in quite easily to the activities and strategies of the European Defence Agency (EDA) of which the Irish Government is a part.

The United States Navy aircraft carriers play a huge role in its international military strategies, the invasion of Iraq would not have been possible without them. The quotes below sums up the political role carriers can have. (I borrowed them from the author Tom Clancy’s website (http://www.clancyfaq.com/)

“When word of a crisis breaks out in Washington, it’s no accident that the first question that comes to everyone’s lips is: ‘Where’s the nearest carrier?‘” Remarks by President Bill Clinton on March 12, 1993 during a visit to USS Theodore Roosevelt

“Four and a half acres of sovereign U.S. territory anytime – anyplace.” Author unknown

The further embedding of the EDA into EU structures was an important part of the Lisbon Treaty. Part of the “mission” of the EDA is strategies such as:

(1) Common procurement, (a nice word for sharing the bills of buying weapons)

(2) Investment, (which probably means buying ever increasing amounts of weapons etc)…. which brings us right back to the two new carriers…

It might be a conspiracy theory but we should ask if Irish defence personnel may end up serving on one of these carriers and could the Irish taxpayer end up funding their running costs?

If you want to find out more about the EDA why not visit http://www.eda.europa.eu/Default.aspx