Last updated at 14:45, Thursday, 15 July 2010

BARROW shipyard managers and workers will be forced to wait five years before they know whether the government will order all four Trident replacement submarines.

• Related article: Barrow MP continues his support for Trident successor

The new fleet is vital to the long-term future of the Barrow yard, where a team of 350 people from BAE, the Ministry of Defence and other companies, including Rolls Royce, is working on concept designs for the new fleet of ballistic missiles boats that would start to enter service in the 2020s.

The five-year delay in making a decision on boat four was revealed by Tory defence secretary Dr Liam Fox in a speech at a London conference.

He admitted the Ministry of Defence could scale back Britain’s fleet of Trident nuclear submarines as it seeks to make savings after what he said will be “the absolute mother of horrors of a spending review”.

Dr Fox said that the fleet would be reduced from four to three subs only if it was possible to do so while maintaining Britain’s “continuous at-sea” deterrent.

The defence secretary said a value-for-money review was looking at whether the nuclear deterrent could be maintained “while reducing the cost of the successor submarine and ballistic missile systems, including by shifting the balance between financial savings and operational risks”.

The previous Labour government had said it would consider whether technology permitted the number of subs to be reduced, while keeping at least one craft continuously at sea, said Dr Fox.

He added: “That reality is still there. We would have to look at what technology was available and what risks we were taking as we came to make that decision on the fourth submarine, sometime in 2014/15.”

Terry Waiting, chairman of the shipbuilding lobby group Keep Our Future Afloat Campaign said: “This has been trailed in the past that they might only require three boats.

“I think it is now understood and accepted that there is a requirement for a four-boat successor fleet which would guarantee a continuous at sea capability. Without that capability, the deterrent becomes meaningless.”

Mr Waiting said KOFAC is seeking a meeting with Dr Fox to lobby for the four-boat option.

The lobby group is also taking a stand at this year’s Tory Party conference in September.

Mr Waiting said a three-boat plan would still be good news and create work in Barrow until the 2030s.

John Woodcock, MP for Barrow and Furness, said the minister’s speech had revealed the value-for-money study of Trident being conducted now was considering issues including the common missile compartment, which could see parts built overseas, and the timetable for Trident. During the general election campaign the Tories had suggested it could be delayed and the existing boats life extended.

Mr Woodcock said: “Critically, the speech makes clear that the timetable for Trident is under review.

“This was a critical issue in the election, when the Conservatives suggested we were scaremongering.

“It is important for me and for the whole area to make the case for the potential damage to our industrial capacity and jobs in Furness and across the supply chain if there is a substantial slippage for the programme.”

First published at 13:06, Thursday, 15 July 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk