Ministers spent tens of millions of pounds trying to make a new naval warplane fit onto the wrong carriers, the Ministry of Defence admitted today.
The bill for attempting to make a new American fighter jet work on Royal Navy aircraft carriers designed for jump jets ran to at least £37 million.
As Defence Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed the attempt is being abandoned, Labour said the full costs were likely to run closer to £250 million.
The MoD will now buy the jump jet version of the F-35 fighter, instead of the regular model which has a longer range but would have meant major adaptations to new aircraft carriers. It reverses a decision announced 18 months ago in the strategic defence review.
An MoD official said that with billions at stake it was worth investigating all the options.
