The main factor behind the move is the pace of production of the Typhoon aircraft, Sky News have reported, citing sources close to BAE.

Brexit is not believed to be a factor in the move, Sky said, citing sources close to the company.

We have reached out to BAE who have yet to respond.

The defence giant is expected to make an announcement later today. The cuts are thought to relate to its two plants in Lancashire.

10,000 people work at the Warton and Samlesbury plants where aircraft assembly takes place.

Separately, the company is today announcing proposed reductions to its Military Air and Information and Maritime Services workforce to align capacity more closely with current and expected orders.

Charles Woodburn, Chief Executive, BAE Systems plc, said:

“BAE Systems is a world leader in technology, advanced manufacturing and engineering and our diverse portfolio provides a strong platform for future growth. The organisational changes we are announcing today accelerate our evolution to a more streamlined, de-layered organisation, with a sharper competitive edge and a renewed focus on technology. These actions will further strengthen our company as we deliver our strategy in a changing environment.

Separately, we are also announcing actions at some of our UK sites to align our workforce capacity more closely with near-term demand and enhance our competitive position to secure new business. Those actions are necessary and the right thing to do for our company, but unfortunately include proposed redundancies at a number of operations. I recognise this will be difficult news for some of our employees and we are committed to do everything we can to support those affected.”

BAE Systems is involved in several major defence projects, including the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Astute-class submarine and the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. BAE Systems is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

The company is among the world’s largest defence entities; it was ranked as the third-largest in 2016. Its largest operations are in the United Kingdom and United States, where its BAE Systems Inc. subsidiary is one of the six largest suppliers to the US Department of Defense.

Other major markets include Australia, India and Saudi Arabia. The company was formed on 30 November 1999 by the £7.7 billion merger of two British companies: Marconi Electronic Systems – the defence electronics and naval shipbuilding subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc and British Aerospace (BAe) – an aircraft, munitions and naval systems manufacturer.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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38 COMMENTS

  1. Building 15% of F-35 is not the same as building 100% of Typhoon. With Hawk sales dropping off as well there is no longer the work. With smaller aircraft fleets to maintain added to the equation there will not be the throughput of work at Warton. Only a large Saudi order will sustain the production line rate that is required to keep these guys on.
    Boeing are going through the same problem with the F-18 line, but that problem is something of their own making (Canada).

  2. “Brexit is not believed to be a factor in the move, Sky said”

    Fucking Sky News and their anti brexit agenda, everything, and I mean everything, they will try and link it to Brexit.

  3. Obviously it isn’t good news hearing that so many people may lose their jobs, I hope they have the help they need to find another.

    It is hardly surprising though is it. The Typhoon production line is slowing and any future orders are unlikely to be enough to keep all of the existing workforce on. More jobs will follow unless they are tasked elsewhere, but I am not sure what they could be moved to.

  4. We don’t build 100% of every Typhoon. We build about 35%, it’s a multinational project with Germany, Italy and Spain.

    Production run of around 600, so 35% of that run.

    F35 we build around 15% with a projected production run of around 3000, which in all probability will exceed 4000 once the Arab countries are allowed to buy it.

    You don’t have to be a genius in maths to work out that the F35 will be economically important to the UK than the Typhoon.

  5. What ever happened to Taranis? I think this French hook up will do nothing but slow the project down when it looked like 90% of the development had already been done.
    The MOD should have place an order for 10 test UAV’s with the aim of production variants being ready in 3 years time. That would place it well ahead of euron that could be 10 years away by the time the 10 industrial partners agree the work share and order 1 uav each.

    • That would be far too sensible. Developing an aircraft, then maybe sharing its secrets with the French and then binning producing it as a national product. History is littered with British aircraft cancellations.

      • Yeah I’m probably over simplifying it, but if the flight control software has been sorted out and the UK can manufacture the entire air frame on its own all of the sensors can be taken off the shelf from Watch keeper and the F35, there is no need for a DAS so why is there a need to share development with anyone else when they have nothing to bring to the table.

        • Exactly, they’ll take our research then pull out and develop their own bargain basement solution which they’ll under cut us with.

          European solidarity means buying Franco-German products and everyone accepting the fact.

          • That sadly is a conclusion that I have long but increasingly come to reach, despite once being an strong supporter of the Union. Over the past 40 years or so I have watched a Franco-German club increasingly rebalance into a Germano-French club with the rest of us as mere accessories and acolytes to their great plan with merely an increasingly fragile pseudo-democratic shell to offer to the world to cover it up. Depressing for the UK, in or out the future looks increasingly bleak in the greater scheme of things. Even much of whats considered British contributions to the military side of this ‘solidarity’ are actually controlled by foreign companies be they Leonardo, MBNA or Thales.

    • Well as we discussed a while back, the early (clearly political) choice of the French M88 engine for the Anglo French UCAV is a massive wrong turn, its larger, heavier, with lower power output and is clearly inferior as a starting point to develop a UV engine compared with the compact EJ200.

      Great start guys!! …… this project will just get bogged down by procrastinating politicos, while the US strides off into an unassailable lead in UCAV technology and as a result, sales…

      We should cancel this wrong turn right now and throw our lot in with the Americans and Japanese on advanced UCAV’s designs. Between us, we could build something very special indeed.

  6. Typhoon had a laboured and painful birth, mainly due the Germans who had second thoughts after communism collapsed.

    This delayed the project and this pushed up costs.

    Further more vital enhancements such as AESA radar, conformal tanks, strike capability and so on were painfully slow to be delivered or not at all.

    So we ended up with a very expensive aircraft with limited capability I am surprised we sold any at all in the export market.

    • Yeah I don’t know why it took 10 years to enable Brimestone and Stormshadow when they where both enabled on the Tornado in no time at all. It definitely hurt sales to India and UAE.
      I think the Saudi’s will place an additional order though, all of the APAC countries, Canada and Australia will order USA as it is a much more important strategic partner while the middle east like to diversify in case they fall out with the US administration.

      • Apparently the Qatar order for typhoon is in doubt.

        Regards a further order from KSA I am not sure it will happen. The original intention was to procure 200, 70 sourced from the UK and the rest license built in country. It seems the later is not possible now.

        The Saudis seem more interested in buying land based air defence systems from Russia and the USA at the present time.

  7. The older the Typhoon becomes the less attractive it will be to new markets. An upgrade programme is possibly the only option to keep the assembly line hot. In terms of the future, the only hope is the drone market, which is likely to demand considerable numbers. However, until then the factories will need to tread water in order to retain the workforce excellence.

    • Time for the HMG to order a fleet of water pistol armed, BAE micro-light aircraft at £135 million each, that seems to be the way it operates re: the Royal Navy.

  9. I can see a time when BAE will fundamentally become a US company. It was mentioned as a possibility some years back when they made the big investments there but with Europe closing ranks in military as well as commercial aircraft with BAE likely to become more and more periferal in any joint programmes I can see the company struggle to keep work and workforce going in any real profitable way for many parts of their business over the next 20 years or so. Whereas they seem to be maintaining or increasing their US work as they become to break down that original prejudice against them and it would at some stage make a lot of sense for them to transfer their head office and investment their to knock through the final barriers to that acceptance there. That decision may well depend on US policy as much as anything we can do as a country to persuade then perhaps. I can see a time when they sell much of their UK assets to Leonardo/Thales/MDNA triumverate (they do have previous) and move into a more reliable growth space elsewhere.

  10. TH – Good? Really? And in which you seem to take unending pleasure and for which I despise you and your ilk. I never understand the thought processes of the cretins like you who take huge delight in seeing the country that (presumably) raised and educated you and which you find an admirable place to live have difficulties and hope for its decline.

    So here is a suggestion. Don’t insult or take joy in British difficulties anywhere near people like me who have a huge belief and pride in our Nation. You will face a very strenuous (if peaceful) argument and you may not enjoy the experience. It is a great country and always will be.

    • I have news for you.

      The UK is a P5 member, G8 member, G20 member, one of the worlds biggest economies, sits on the board of the IMF, the World Bank, with cultural, political, military, and economic links worldwide, and a long history of involvement of world affairs.
      And will continue to do so!
      I hope you squirm at this and lie awake at night upset that the UK is SOMEBODY and not Mozambique, which perversely is your hope and aspiration for your own nation.
      It’s akin to preferring to live in a cardboard box than living in a house.

      What a weird person you are. Just like on this site. Something you hate so much so you come and annoy people who will never agree with you in a million years, almost for the pleasure of it!

  11. TH

    I m disgusted by your comments. There is no equal playing field, Peugeot, Renault Nissan all partly owned by the French govt, Boeing being helped by the US govt and China is helping all its companies.

    The UK can be more efficient – but being pleased that people are being made redundant is nothing to be pleased about.

    My god man – where is your humility…..

  12. What a totally unpleasant berk you are.
    What sort of ‘real’ jobs are you envisioning? App designs,computer games,Soviet tractor factory?
    Cretin ?

  13. 2000 highly skilled and well paid factory jobs to be cut and you say good? You have to be a bigger parasite than the average welfare rat or university student.
    What constitutes a quote “real job”? Because when I was growing up and you didn’t have a university education you were a factory worker, farmer, lumberjack, construction worker, longshoreman, or LE/Military.
    Tell me why is good for people who have likely been with the company for decades to be told to go. So people who are greedy and have no since of patriotism, citizenship, or camaraderie can save a pittance on taxes. So the NGOs benefiting from unlimited foreign aid can continue to pay their higher ups extravagant salaries. Billions of £ for the banks nothing for the factories and steel mills.
    I would challenge you to go that factory and tell each and every on of those workers you’re glad their job is gone and your happy they don’t get to retire. Because you seem the type who is only bold behind a screen.

  14. TH, please lean a little humility, tonight thousands of families are sat around kitchen tables worried sick about paying their mortgages.

    You seem to take pleasure in this misery and that is very sad indeed…

  15. You do not live in the real world. You live in one where it is both morally acceptable to be happy as your fellow citizens lose work and one where manufacturing jobs is good. Neither is advocating for irresponsibly low levels of military spending living in the real world. Abrogating one responsibilities to your fellow Citizens and your Allies. Claiming that the US is facing inevitable decline while it has had been having a much faster growing economy and birthrate than the UK or Europe is living in La La Land.
    The United States forge their own way? What do you think the US has been doing since 1776? Other than having to subsidize the defense of the entire western world these past 70 years of course.

  18. BAe, a Defence Contractor.
    Projects consistently delivered late, significantly over budget, and falling short on meeting operational performance specifications.
    An organisation with a cost plus mentality that has leached off the British Taxpayer for too long.
    The UK military should have the best not BAE equipment just because its British, get your house in order BAE and make some aircraft worth buying. The UK learnt it’s long hard lesson about your aircraft manufacturing with Nimrod, millions over budget, years late and a running sore at the MOD. Now we are ordering martitime patrol P8’s off the shelf which will work from day one, it’s political what you are doing two thousand workers thrown to the wolves in order for you to get the government to give you more orders, here is an idea sack your sales people not your engineers and be aware Boeing employ at least 19 thousand in UK and growing

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