Carrier work for BAE

The jobs of hundreds of Scottish shipyard workers looked more secure today after it emerged that BAE Systems is set to grab the lion’s share of a £3.5 billion carrier contract.

It follows a new agreement to divide “roles and responsibilities” on the project to construct two 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.

BAE, which operates Clydeside yards at Govan and Scotstoun, is expected to take charge of the bulk of the construction work. Although an agreement is yet to be finalised by the various firms involved, the Ministry of Defence is keen to see the deal signed within the next few weeks.

If a fresh plan is hammered out, the present alliance – comprising BAE, Thales of France, Halliburton’s KBR subsidiary and the MoD – is likely to be expanded to include two more firms, Babcock International – which owns the Rosyth yard in Fife – and VT Group, formerly known as Vosper Thornycroft.

BAE employs about 80% of the UK’s warship designers in Glasgow and at its yard in Barrow-in-Furness in Cumbria. Making sure there is a steady flow of work for shipyards is one of the key reasons the UK Government is determined to create an alliance of companies to plan work more evenly.

Under the proposed plans, the BAE facilities would construct three of the five ?megblocks? that form the hull of the carrier, while Babcock’s Rosyth yard and VT’s Portsmouth operation would make the other two. Final assembly would then take place in Rosyth although BAE and VT engineers would join the Babcock team to help complete the work.