A DEFENCE firm has won a submarine missile contract that will keep hundreds of workers in a job for five years.
Babcock International Group at Rosyth, Fife, has been awarded the contract from General Dynamics Electric Boat to make 22 tactical missile tube assemblies as part of the common missile compartment project for the UK Successor and US Ohio Class replacement submarine building programmes.
The work is part of the second phase of the project and places Babcock as a critical supplier of missile tube assemblies.
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Beginning towards the end of 2016 and expected to complete in the early 2020s, with further opportunities expected from future batches, the work will be carried out at Babcock’s facilities at Rosyth and Bristol, sustaining around 150 positions created in the first phase, with wider related employment benefits.
The contract for this batch of components is expected to be worth around £80 million.
Archie Bethel, Babcock chief executive, said the firm has "already secured the supply of other critical equipment and are also heavily involved in the design phase with a focus on the overall through life performance and operational cost of the future platforms".
Harriett Baldwin, UK Defence Minister, said: "This contract is a strong endorsement of our highly skilled and globally competitive defence industry and will secure hundreds of jobs in Rosyth.
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"With Faslane set to be home of all the Royal Navy’s submarines by 2020, this is further evidence of the benefits that defence brings to the economy and to Scotland."
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