U
K helicopter industry 'will die in MoD cuts'A £1 billion helicopter project has been "offered up as a sacrifice" for defence cuts as the Ministry of Defence struggles to manage its funding crisis, it was claimed yesterday.
The termination of the Future Lynx deal would herald the end of major helicopter manufacturing in Britain if Gordon Brown decides to go ahead with the reductions.
A decision on auditing major defence projects has been delayed to the end of next month with the Government attempting to avoid embarrassing job losses just before local elections on Thursday.
But defence sources said it was now "highly likely" that the order for 70 Future Lynx utility helicopters, which were to be bought for the Army and the Royal Navy, will be axed.
The decision could lead to the closure of the Westland helicopter plant in Yeovil, Somerset, with the loss of 800 jobs.
In 1986 Michael Heseltine, then Defence Secretary, stormed out of the Cabinet in a row over competing deals to rescue Westland.
Douglas Carswell, a Tory MP who has written a paper on scrapping the Lynx deal with the Italian firm Finmeccanica, said: "This is a bad deal and the sooner we get out of it the better. We could announce, for example, that we would buy the same amount of helicopters from Sikorsky – and still have £580 million to spend addressing funding shortages elsewhere in the Armed Forces." He added that the Sikorsky Seahawk helicopters would be available within 12 months. The Lynx is not expected in service until 2013.
The American-built Seahawks would cost £6 million, or the MoD could buy the well-regarded EADS Eurocopter at £4.5 million each rather than the £14 million for each Lynx.
The likely cut will be part of an "examination" of major projects as the MoD faces a £1 billion hole in defence spending this year. Questions over the future size of the Navy will also be asked. The auditors will look at whether six of the Type 45 air defence destroyers will be sufficient, rather than the eight that senior sailors believe will be the "minimum" necessary to protect aircraft carriers.
But one programme that defence sources have confirmed is certain to go ahead will be the two aircraft carriers being built for £4 billion in Scottish constituencies with strong Labour Party ties.
The issues are expected to come up on Thursday when industry chiefs meet Baroness Taylor, the defence procurement minister .
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