BAE Systems cuts 375 maritime jobs in restructure

BAE Systems has announced it will cut about 375 maritime jobs, with the Portsmouth Naval Base in England bearing the brunt of the cuts.

Chief Executive Charles Woodburn said the restructure, which will result in BAE shedding up to 2,000 jobs across the UK, would, “accelerate our evolution to a more streamlined, de-layered organisation, with a sharper competitive edge and a renewed focus on technology.”

Addressing the job losses, Mr Woodburn said: “Those actions are necessary and the right thing to do for our company, but unfortunately include proposed redundancies at a number of operations.”

Designed “to boost competitiveness, accelerate technology innovation and improve operational excellence from a more streamlined business”, the cuts were made “to align capacity more closely with current and expected orders”.

“In response to evolving customer requirements and an ongoing focus on efficiency improvements, a workforce reduction of around 375 roles is proposed across Maritime Services,” said Mr Woodburn.

“The proposed rationalisation will more closely align with workload, improve our competitiveness in order to retain and grow our position on key programs, and retain critical skills and capabilities.”

BAE has a five-year, £600 million (US$796.5 million) “maritime support delivery framework” (MSDF) contract to support half of the Royal Navy’s fleet, including the management of Portsmouth Naval Base, that runs until 2019.

A recently agreed amendment extended BAE’s maritime services to cover all the vessels at the base, including aircraft carriers, until March 2019.

There is also a £68.5 million option to extend the agreement to March 2020.