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Defence Secretary John Hutton is due to issue a written ministerial statement on the future of two new Royal Navy aircraft carriers.

Reports suggest he could delay their entry into service - scheduled for 2014 and 2016 - by two years as the Ministry of Defence tries to cut costs.

Work on the £4bn project had been due to begin next spring.

The announcement affects shipyards in Appledore, north Devon, Portsmouth, Barrow-in-Furness, Glasgow and Rosyth.

Former defence secretary Des Browne had given the green light for the creation of HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales in May.

Contracts worth about £3.2bn were signed in July and the work was expected to create or underpin a total of 10,000 jobs at the yards.

But Mr Hutton told MPs this week there would be a new announcement on defence spending.

He said: "We will be setting out some ways in which we intend to improve value for money in relation to defence procurement.

"But we have got to make sure that the armed forces have a balanced range of kit available to them."

'Financial chaos'

BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the government did not view cancelling major defence projects as an option. Instead, it was considering delays as a way of controlling the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) spiralling budget.

She said: "At least one of Britain's two new aircraft carriers could be put back by a year, or even two.

"There's already a delay to the joint strike fighter that will fly from the warships, so the MoD could argue it makes sense to put off the completion of the carriers."

But Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock, a member of the Commons Defence Committee, said the MoD was in financial "chaos".

"Without the carrier contracts, many of those yards are going to find it difficult to keep going," he said.

"MoD contracts have been fundamental in keeping the skills together, keeping the technology alive and moving it on... delays will undoubtedly mean a lot of that good work and a lot of money will have been wasted."

Meanwhile, hundreds of jobs in Somerset are to be secured due to a new government order for 62 Future Lynx helicopters from Agusta Westland, BBC West has learned.

Mr Hutton is expected to confirm the order for the Yeovil production site later.

An immediate contract will also be awarded to upgrade existing Lynx helicopters to prepare them for battlefield sites such as Afghanistan.

The order, worth £1bn, has been delayed for more than two years.