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BAE to slash 3,800 jobs
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June 15, 2000: 6:14 a.m. ET
UK defense, aerospace giant confirms broad cost-cutting move
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LONDON (CNNfn) - U.K. aerospace and defense company BAE Systems announced Thursday plans to slash 3,800 jobs in Britain as part of an expected cost-cutting drive.
The job cuts, which had been hinted at when the company was born out of the merger of British Aerospace and GEC's Marconi defense arm last year, will be spread across all of BAE Systems' 62 U.K. sites.
The largest cuts will be at BAE Brough plant in Yorkshire, home to the pilot-training Hawk fighter, where 800 jobs will be lost. Another 700 positions will be eliminated in Warton, England, former home of the Tornado attack fighter and the plant where the planned Eurofighter will be built. The aircraft electronics plants in York and Ilford, England will be closed.
BAE said the cuts are a result of a review of its U.K. operations. "Based on the outcome of the review it is now clear that there are savings to be realized," Chief Executive John Weston said in a statement. 
"There are a number of areas in the U.K. in which the company has overlapping product capabilities, duplication of facilities and resources and opportunities to improve efficiency and consolidate activities," he added.
The merger partners expected cost savings of £275 million per year when they announced their deal, and now BAE expects "a minimum" of that over a three-year span "and we're looking toward considerably more," spokesman Richard Coltart told CNNfn.com.
In a statement, BAE said it's continuing to consider the "further viability" of its Nottingham ordnance production facility, which is home to another 390 jobs. Operations at overseas plants are being reviewed separately.
The company also said it may add jobs over the next 18 months. Weston said BAE expects to hire 2,000 engineers for specific areas such as systems and software engineering.
Shares of BAE Systems (BA), Europe's largest defense company, rose 1.4 percent to 408 pence on the London Stock Exchange shortly after the announcement.
BAE, whose nearest rival in Europe will be EADS once that company is formed out of the merger of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Aérospatiale-Matra in France and Spain's Casa, previously said senior management positions are being cut by 15 percent, while cuts among other staff will be lower, Reuters reported.
The company currently has about 110,000 employees worldwide, about 70,000 of whom are in the UK. 
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BAE Systems
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