Day of defence cuts: BAE and Royal Navy announce fresh redundancies

By politics.co.uk staff

Both defence firm BAE and the Royal Navy are announcing headcount cuts today, as Britain's status in the military world continues to shrink.

Contractor BAE confirmed around 3,000 redundancies, largely as a result of disappointing sales of its Eurofighter jet.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Defence (MoD) is undergoing the first round of job losses in the Royal Navy, with up to 400 compulsory redundancies expected.

"The decisions we are making are not easy but they will help to defend the UK, protect our interests overseas and enable us to work effectively with allies and partners to deliver greater security and stability in the wider world," an MoD spokesperson said.

Sailors who served on HMS Cumberland at the start of this year's Libya campaign will be among those who lose their jobs, as they have completed their operational leave.

By 2015 the Royal Navy will have reduced its personnel to 30,000, an overall reduction of 5,000 implemented as part of last year's strategic defence and security review.

BAE Systems' announcement underlines a further setback for Britain's defence capacities. It has around 40,000 employees in Britain out of around 100,000 worldwide.

Its military aircraft divisions in Lancashire, Warton and Samlesbury, and Brough in East Yorkshire, are bearing the brunt of the cuts.

The government's ten per cent cut in government defence spending is ultimately expected to lead to the loss of up to 30,000 British jobs in the defence industry, according to defence trade organisation ADS. 

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