Defense Contract Awarded to Overseas Company and Hundreds of Local Jobs Are Now At Risk

In England...

HUNDREDS of defence jobs will be axed after a US firm won a £4billion contract to build a tank for the Army.
British company BAE Systems had hoped to win the deal - and said 500 jobs which they were set to cut at three sites in England could have been saved.
However, US defence giants General Dynamics have pledged to build most of the new light tank in the UK, meaning more than 10,000 jobs - including dozens in Scotland - will be safeguarded or created.
The Ministry of Defence decision will mainly hit a BAE factory in Newcastle.
The new tank is designed to replace the Scimitar scout vehicle.
Sandy Wilson, president and managing director of General Dynamics UK, said: "The programme is British to its bootstraps, delivering a military off-the-shelf vehicle with British design by British engineers to the British Army whi le safeguarding or creating 10,600 jobs for British workers."
Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the vehicle "is one of the highest equipment priorities for the Army".

By: Brant