Des Browne hailed it as a “historic day for defence” when he celebrated in July the signing of the £3bn contract to build the UK’s biggest aircraft carriers.
Mr Browne, who was the UK’s defence secretary at the time, was speaking at BAE’s Govan yard on the River Clyde, where the workforce has been building Type 25 destroyers. The new order will support more than 3,000 jobs at BAE’s Govan and Scotstoun yards in Glasgow, and sustain 1,600 jobs at Babcock Marine’s naval dockyard at Rosyth on the Firth of Forth, where the ships will be assembled.
