Lancashire BAE jobs fears dispelled (From Preston and Leyland Citizen)

Lancashire BAE jobs fears dispelled

1:10pm Wednesday 13th May 2009

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AN aerospace giant has moved to dispel fears over potential job losses after doubts were raised over a multi-billion pound defence contract.

Bosses at BAE Systems, which employs more than 4,000 people in Samlesbury, said negotiations were well under way with the UK Government regarding the Typhoon aircfraft.

Although no decision had yet been made on Typhoon, the company said conflicting reports over the UK Government’s commitment to the project were purely speculation.

BAE aleady has major contracts with the UK government for Typhoon but this latest contract, referred to as Tranche 3, is the third stage of the overall programme.

The planes, initially called Eurofighter Typhoons, are the next generation of fighter jets and cobine the most up to date technology in their design. Many countries have bought the planes to replace their aging Tornado fleets.

On Tuesday night the BBC raised the prospect of jobs" target="_blank">redundancies at BAE Systems if the UK order for Typhoon was cancelled. Its understanding was that the Government was stalling on whether it would fulfill its contract obligations for 88 Typhoon aircraft.

However, things were complicated yesterday morning when the Financial Times led on Gordon Brown’s apparent willingness to forge ahead with the latest Typhoon contact.

A BAE spokesman said: “Tranche 3 contract negotiations have started for up to a further 236 aircraft at the Tranche 2 standard, ready for integrating additional functions.

“As agreed with the customer, the way forward will need to be concluded during 2009 in order to maintain production continuity."

Part of the confusion was borne out of the fact that the Government is still in discussions over the exact nature of the latest Typhoon contract, therefore no one knows for sure what the outcome will be.

The other European partners in the deal are Germany, Italy and Spain.

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