Europe's leading defense company BAE Systems, naval shipbuilder BVT and aeroengine maker Rolls-Royce have all announced job losses here Nov. 20.
BAE says it is cutting 200 jobs in its land systems business in the UK. The cuts, a mix of employees and contractors, are being made across sites in Newcastle, Leeds, Telford ,Leicester and Barrow.
The company put the redundancies down to a "decline in the workload on the UK Ministry of Defence's armored fighting vehicle programs."
Just over a quarter of the job losses are being made at the company's Telford site, where BAE undertakes much of its urgent operational requirement work for the armed forces deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In a statement David Allott, the managing director of BAE's Land Systems operation here, said company had been able to put off the decision to make job cuts due to "high workload on meeting urgent operational requirements, but that activity is now tailing off."
The company hinted at possible further job losses and a restructuring of its sites, saying it will continue to "review the business and its industrial footprint in the light of the UK MoD's ongoing requirements. This review will take into account current and future programs, in particular the Future Rapid Effects System and Warrior programs."
The company's Land System operation in the UK employs 2110 people in its weapons and vehicles sector and a further 1,800 in munitions.
BAE's job losses announcements were not confined to the land sector, either. BVT, the recently merged surface warship operation jointly owned by BAE and the VT Group, also reported today it was making 135 people redundant.
A BVT spokesman said the cuts were the result of a duplication of roles caused by the merger and not related to a downturn in business.
BVT would be recruiting additional manufacturing workers next year to ramp up work on the 3.8 billion pound aircraft carrier program for the Royal Navy, he said.
The job reductions will come in management and support activities. The bulk of them will be at the Portsmouth yard previously owned by VT. About 30percent will be at the Clyde, Scotland, yards previously operated by BAE.
The spokesman said that the duplication resulting from the merger had originally accounted for about 300 posts but BVT had reduced the actual job losses by not filling vacancies and other strategies.
The biggest job losses of the day though have been reserved for the aerospace industry where engine maker Rolls-Royce announced it was taking out 140 jobs at its civil assembly and test facility at Derby in the UK.
The company said it planned to make between 1,500 and 2,000 people redundant at facilities across the world in 2009. It said it was too early to say which sectors of the business would be impacted.
Rolls-Royce blamed the economic downturn and delays on the Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 civil airliners for the cutbacks.
The engine-maker, who employs around 39,000 people globally, cut 2,300 workers in support functions earlier this year.
Britain's two main opposition parties weighed in blaming the ruling Labour Party for the job losses at BAE and describing the governments defense policy as incompetent.
Liberal Democrat shadow defence secretary Nick Harvey said the MoD's "staggering incompetence over its armored vehicle procurement program now seems to be taking its toll on British jobs."
"The government must get its act together for the sake of both our troops and British workers and decide what it wants, what it needs and what it can afford. A comprehensive strategic defense review is now more vital than ever", he said.
His Conservative counterpart Liam Fox said that "losing crucial defense jobs at a time when we are still involved in two conflict abroad is testament to the incompetence and inefficiency of Labour's entire defense policy."
The Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program is ready to test a few components that soldiers may have in their hands by 2010.
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