BAE Systems to cut 370 jobs

MANUFACTURING giant BAE Systems says it is cutting 371 jobs in Lancashire as it reduces production of its Typhoon fighter jet.

The “lion’s share” of cuts will be at the firm’s site in Samlesbury, with some to go at Warton, a spokesperson for the defence group said.

At both sites the company employs around 13,000 people, making it one of the county’s biggest employers.

BAE said it expected sales of the Typhoon to fall from around £1.3bn this year to £1.1bn in 2016.

The announcement came on a gloomy day for industry as engine maker Rolls-Royce issued its fourth profit warning in just over a year , sending shares as much as a fifth lower.

BAE announced in September that it had agreed to supply 28 Typhoon aircraft to the Kuwait air force, with deliveries from its Italian Typhoon final assembly line to start around the end of the decade.

It said it was reducing the rate of production so that it could continue “at competitive costs over the medium term”. BAE is in talks with Saudi Arabia to try to secure further Tycoon orders but the discussions are making slow progress.

In a trading statement, chief executive Ian King said the company was “operating in an improving business environment” and continued to win new orders, with “good prospects for the future”.

But he said that action on Typhoon production as well as a writedown on the value of a shipyard in Australia – where the company is also axing jobs – would hit the group’s annual results.