BAE Systems shipyards: Shipbuilding 'to stop' at Portsmouth

[adzii_nufc]

Don't forget Newcastle BAE closes at the end of this year. I used to work there.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I bet anything that the government will awards contracts to build Navy warships overseas.

What is wrong with Cameron. This country is already under strength in the armed services, and they want to take on more volunteers, what will they do to get ships if we need them - hire them from France.

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I bet anything that the government will awards contracts to build Navy warships overseas.

What is wrong with Cameron. This country is already under strength in the armed services, and they want to take on more volunteers, what will they do to get ships if we need them - hire them from France.

Sadly there is a lack of major conflict that requires the mobilization of large navies and our navy is as big as it needs to be so we don't need any new ships apart from the ones already on order hence the need to close one of the ship yards .Lack of war is a bit of a bugger


I would have thought that BAE would have kept Portsmouth open since Scotland is building the 2 new carriers

RN ships must be built in the UK. That's the rule.

It's the 800 years of history just written off that upsets me. I suppose the home of the Victory,Mary Rose and The Warrior will just become a huge historical park eventually.What the hell they can do with a site that's littered with graded historic buildings? It's not going to be a site that can be redeveloped for housing or retail.

http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/do...clandmarks.php

[Pierre]

There's no room for sentiment in big business.

Originally Posted by Pierre

There's no room for sentiment in big business.

Business has little do do with this decision..it's purely political.

If warship building were governed by purely business considerations, we would be buying all our ships from yards in the far East and Portsmouth would have shut down years ago. Politics is the only reason there are any shipbuilding jobs left to lose in Portsmouth. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword.

The politics of it are, that said, slightly more complex than the simplistic claim that it's about trying to influence the referendum, and let's not forget that BAe did have a say in this, so there are business considerations in there somewhere. BBC Scotland's Brian Taylor is worth a read on this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24839564

[Mr K]

The MOD are masters at fiddling figures to prove whatever they want. When scrutinised they'll hide behind 'commercial confidentiality' and 'national security'. If costs suddenly double for any project they get away with it - no other Govt. Dept would.

[Osem]

It'd be nice to have a breakdown of the extra costs associated with the carrier contracts to see where they've occurred. There's no doubt the uncertainty re the choice of aircraft was a factor but what else?

---------- Post added at 09:38 ---------- Previous post was at 09:37 ----------

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Presumably only warships?



Linky

To be fair no UK shipyard would quote.

Wonder if the final cost will be double?

[Osem]

Which, if true (and asided from specification changes etc.) would seem to ndicate that cost overruns are down to factors to do with the companies, working practices and labour rather than loose contracts.

[Escapee]

I have mixed feeling here, I feel for the people who will be loosing their jobs.

But... This is another example where job losses are brought to the public attention and sympathy is dished out for political reasons.

There are other companies in the defence industry, some similar sizes and some smaller that have made larger numbers and larger percentages of employees redundant, but these have gone unnoticed for alternative political reasons.