As much as 3,000 expert manufacturing jobs may very well be in danger until the Ministry of Defence strikes rapidly to position a long-delayed helicopter order, in line with business sources near the programme.
Staff at Leonardo Helicopters’s Yeovil web site in Somerset, the UK’s final remaining navy helicopter manufacturing unit, concern the corporate might shut the ability as early as the top of March if the federal government fails to decide to a brand new contract inside weeks.
Leonardo, the Italian-owned defence group that acquired the previous Westland Helicopters enterprise, is the only real bidder for the £1bn “new medium helicopter” programme, which was launched by the Ministry of Defence in February 2024. Nonetheless, extended delays in awarding the contract have solid doubt over the way forward for the positioning.
Trade insiders say the bid’s “finest and closing provide” expires in March, with pricing depending on advanced international supply-chain commitments. One supply mentioned Leonardo would have wanted affirmation by January to satisfy manufacturing and supply timelines. Any delay past March dangers forcing all the procurement course of to restart.
“It’s essential in the mean time,” the supply mentioned. “If this slips previous March, the value and the bid itself could not be legitimate.”
The problem has escalated in current months. In November, Leonardo’s chief government, Roberto Cingolani, advised buyers that talks have been below means with the UK authorities to strengthen collaboration. In December, he wrote on to Defence Secretary John Healey, warning that delays could lead on Leonardo to scrap future funding within the UK – together with in its electronics and cyber safety operations.
Cingolani described the medium helicopter contract as a “cornerstone” of Leonardo’s UK technique, including that any cancellation or additional delay would set off a “reevaluation” of the corporate’s presence in Britain.
The standoff comes regardless of repeated ministerial commitments to extend defence spending in response to heightened geopolitical dangers, notably Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Defence suppliers have grown more and more pissed off by the absence of a long-promised defence funding plan, which had been anticipated earlier than Christmas.
Unite has warned that uncertainty is eroding confidence among the many workforce. Sharon Graham, the union’s common secretary, mentioned workers in Yeovil have been being left in limbo whereas the federal government delayed choices.
“Leonardo staff are trying over their shoulders questioning the place the subsequent order will come from,” she mentioned. “This uncertainty should finish, and the federal government ought to affirm the medium-lift helicopter order now.”
The Ministry of Defence mentioned it was engaged on a brand new defence funding plan and highlighted report ranges of deliberate spending. A spokesperson mentioned the federal government would commit £270bn to defence over the course of the present parliament, describing the inherited defence programme as “overcommitted and underfunded”.
For Yeovil, nonetheless, the timeline is way shorter. With out swift motion, business figures warn that Britain dangers dropping not simply 1000’s of expert jobs, however its final home functionality to construct navy helicopters – a blow that might be troublesome, if not unattainable, to reverse.
