Rosyth dockyard has received a major cash boost after winning a £5 million contract to perform maintenance on the Royal Navy's HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.
The contract was awarded to defence company Babcock and announced by defence minister Stuart Andrew on Tuesday.
Maintenance of the 65,000 tonne carrier will take place over a six week period this summer, and will bring 100 jobs to the yard.
The contract marks the return of the HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier to Rosyth dockyard after its naming ceremony there in July 2014.
Since then, the carrier has been performing sea and flying trials with the F-35 jets that it carries, and will enter operational service in 2020.
It cost £6bn to build and operates with a crew of 1,000 and 40 aircraft.
HMS Queen Elizabeth's sister carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, is in its final stages of construction at Rosyth and is expected to be handed over to the Royal Navy later this year.
Babcock announced in March 2018 that as many as 400 jobs would be lost as a result of the completion of the warships.
Although the building of the second carrier will soon be complete, maintenance contracts are a potential revenue stream for the company in the future.
Defence minister Stuart Andrew said: “After a phenomenal year of trials off the East Coast of the US, this dry-docking contract is an important step for HMS Queen Elizabeth as she gears up for operations.
“The largest ship in our Royal Navy’s history, which was assembled in Rosyth, will now return for this multi-million-pound routine maintenance work as she gets set to represent Britain across the world for decades to come.”
A spokesman for Babcock told The Herald: “We look forward to welcoming HMS Queen Elizabeth back to our facilities, where she was assembled, for her first docking and maintenance period.
"We continue to work closely with our MOD and Royal Navy customer on this national asset.”
Douglas Chapman, MP for Dunfermline and West Fife, said: “The announcement by the MoD that Rosyth has been awarded the contract for the first HMS Queen Elizabeth refits is a welcome one.
"This step not only protects jobs at the Rosyth dockyard, but it also sets a valuable precedent which puts down a marker for future full-scale refits.
“There is no doubt that the workforce we have in West Fife is one of the most skilled in Scotland, given their role in constructing the two largest ships ever procured by the Royal Navy. It is entirely correct that this contract has come to this site given its unique ability and means to outfit ships of this size in the UK.
“Rosyth is willing and ready to undertake the work and I am delighted that the UK government agrees with that assessment.
“Further down the line, we await the UK government's decisions on Type 31 frigates and fleet support ships.
"The Rosyth site is in the mix to benefit from these contracts too and I again urge the UK government minister to come to a decision urgently on these contracts."
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