BAE Systems will today make a last-ditch bid to build the army's next generation of Scout armoured vehicle, presenting a new offer to create jobs in Newcastle if ministers overturn a decision on the contract.
Quentin Davies, defence minister, is set to announce General Dynamics as the winner of a fierce competition worth more than £1bn to build an initial batch of about 750 vehicles, which the US company says will sustain thousands of jobs in Britain.
The decision to opt for GD and to delay plans to upgrade the Warrior armoured vehicle are a severe setback for BAE, which saw both contracts as essential for the survival of its British armoured vehicle business.
In a last throw of the dice, BAE has told the Ministry of Defence that it will revise the terms of its bid, consolidating the production work in Newcastle - a move that would cancel 400 redundancies and create 400 additional jobs.
BAE has in the past year announced the closure of three land-vehicle manufacturing plants and several hundred job losses. Its original bid planned to equip the Scout in Sweden and assemble turrets for it and the Warrior at a new site in Donnington.
However, defence insiders expect new proposals from BAE to make little or no difference to the final decision, which was formally evaluated by the MoD and signed-off by ministers. Given the financial constraints on the MoD and operational demands of the army, senior figures involved with the decision said they no longer had the luxury of making decisions purely on the basis of where jobs are created.
The contract will close the chapter on Britain's pioneering history in the design and manufacture of tanks. Under both bids for the Scout, future British armoured vehicles will use chassis bought from overseas but customised for the army in Britain. BAE is currently building the Terrier vehicle, the last wholly British-designed and built armoured fighting vehicle.
Alan Garwood, BAE business development director, said: "We want the army to have the best kit and we want to protect vital skills in the UK. To achieve this we are offering to transfer manufacturing work on [the vehicles] to Newcastle, which will sustain or create 800 skilled jobs and manufacturing work there until at least 2020."
By: Brant
2 comments:
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Glad you liked it. Now would you like to discuss the specifics of the reciprocal trade agreements and why it matters that BAE won't be building armored vehicles in England? Or are you just here to get people to follow a link to your self-promoting website?
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