By Lars Niven

FEARS OF job losses at Rosyth Dockyard have been raised following a decision by the Ministry of Defence to apparently ditch its target date of 2012 to launch the first of the Royal Navy’s two new supercarriers.

The Fife yard’s owners, Babcock, are hoping for a sizeable share of the supercarrier project, but have struggled in the past to keep their order books full.

The fear is unless sufficient work can be found between now and the supercarrier project coming on stream, further cuts to the workforce will have to be made.

The SNP has reacted furiously to the move. Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, said last night the announcement would almost inevitably lead to more job losses.

It emerged last week that the final decision to go ahead with the project, the so-called “main gate” stage, may not be reached by the end of this year, as planned.

Defence Procurement Minister Lord Drayson told MPs on the Commons Defence Committee yesterday he was unwilling to commit himself to saying when the carriers would be in service until that stage had been passed and contracts signed with the private companies involved in the deal.

At a cost of about £3.5 billion, the two ships are designed to replace the navy’s three existing aircraft carriers, Invincible, Illustrious and Ark Royal.

They are due to be withdrawn from service between 2010 and 2013.

Invincible has already been mothballed pending its eventual retirement.

The new ships will be the largest in the navy’s history and are expected to be capable of acting as control centres for land forces while moored off unfriendly coasts, giving the armed forces greater flexibility in responding to future threats.

The MoD initially said it hoped the first carrier would be in service by 2012 and the second by 2015.

Mr Crawford told The Courier, “This is bitterly disappointing news.

“It has been delay after delay over the awarding of this contract and the Rosyth yard in particular has already been forced to cut 1509 jobs since Labour came to power in 1997.

“Babcock at Rosyth was desperate for this order to be placed on target to fill a significant gap in its order book.

“It will now be extremely difficult for Babcock to retain the full range of skills at Rosyth it needs to be a sustainable business and win future contracts. This is another Scottish shipyard that has been let down by Labour.

“It is now inevitable that further jobs will be lost and this represents a body blow not only to Fife but the whole of the Scottish economy.”

It also emerged that Lord Drayson tried to put off yesterday’s hearing until after the contracts were signed.

If the committee declined to put off its hearing, he warned that the MoD would be “forced to be limited in the information that it will be able to provide.”

However, the minister, who was appointed in May, told the House of Commons defence committee, “I have noted the target date which the department has set itself in the past.

“However, given the importance of this project, the in-service date must be set on the basis of the main gate decision.

“I reserve the right as a minister to set that date on the basis of the main gate decision.”

Lord Drayson insisted he intended to proceed to main gate “as soon as possible,” but said it was not possible to fix a date while complex and sensitive negotiations were under way.

It was vital that agreement was reached on how responsibility for the risks, cost and timing of the project would be shared between the Government and its private partners before giving the final stamp of approval.

Lord Drayson told the committee, “The ideal would be for this main gate decision to be taken as soon as possible, subject to it meeting the criteria I have described.

“I’m well aware that the sooner we take a decision the better for the navy and the industry, however this decision to go through main gate must be taken when we are clear about the answers to these questions.”

Lord Drayson said this was the first time the MoD had used an alliance model in its dealings with private contractors.

A number of companies will be involved in building the supercarriers.

Lord Drayson said all work on the two carriers would take place at British shipyards, but refused to name them.

Press reports have previously suggested that about 80% of the work will be shared between BAE Systems’ yards on the Clyde and in Barrow-in-Furness, Vosper Thorneycroft at Southampton and Babcock at Rosyth.