Portsmouth: £70m Contract Safeguards 100 BAE Jobs

23 June 2014, 18:18 | Updated: 23 June 2014, 18:26

The Ministry of Defence has awarded BAE Systems a £70 million contract to manage the support, maintenance and upgrade of the Type 45 Destroyers at Portsmouth Naval Base.

The contract will safeguard 100 roles at BAE Systems in Portsmouth. It will start in July 2014 and run until the end of November 2016.
 
Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology Philip Dunne MP said:

"This £70 million contract is good news for Portsmouth. It will protect the skills of around 100 expert engineers and makes clear that the future of the city's ship support industry is bright.
 
"Our Type 45 destroyers are the largest and most powerful ships the Navy has ever had, featuring state of the art equipment and weapons systems.

"It is essential that the ships receive top class support and Portsmouth has the skills needed to do this. This is another demonstration of the Royal Navy's commitment to the shipyard, which will continue to play an important role in the city's future."
 
John Hudson, Managing Director, Maritime at BAE Systems added:

“We are proud to continue our support to the Royal Navy fleet.

"Our objective is to ensure the ships are ready and available to be deployed and to continue that support while they are on operations around the world. 

"This contract is an excellent example of industry and Government working collaboratively to achieve efficiency and effectiveness.”
 
The six Daring Class Type 45 ships - HMS Daring, HMS Dauntless, HMS Diamond, HMS Dragon, HMS Defender and HMS Duncan, are the largest and most powerful Air Defence Destroyers ever operated by the Royal Navy.