Update: UK trade union blasts end of Eurofighter production at Warton

BAE Systems has been building Eurofighters at its Warton site since 2000. With the completion of the final aircraft from Qatar, final assembly has ceased pending any future export orders. (Eurofighter)

A UK trade union has described as a “betrayal” the end of Eurofighter Typhoon production at BAE Systems' Warton facility in northern England.

Unite, the union that represents manufacturing workers across the United Kingdom, said that the conclusion of Eurofighter final assembly at Warton after 25 years threatens not only current national capabilities, but potential future ones also.

“I have repeatedly told government ministers how much is at risk in terms of jobs, skills, and national security if we stop assembling our own fighter planes. But instead of future planning and ensuring skilled workers are ready to produce the next generation of fighter jets [Global Combat Air Programme: GCAP], they still seem content to sit on their hands while those skills begin to wither and die,” Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said.

Graham's union added in a statement that the ending of Eurofighter final assembly at Warton was “a betrayal of BAE [Systems] workers”, saying that hundreds of staff have had to be transferred to other company factories or to Royal Air Force (RAF) bases in the absence of any further domestic orders.

Warton production

BAE Systems' Warton site is one of four manufacturing facilities for the Eurofighter programme, with the others being the Airbus Defence and Space site at Manching in Germany, the Leonardo site at Caselle in Italy, and the Airbus Defence and Space site at Getafe in Spain. While each site produces components and subassemblies for the wider consortium, they are responsible for final assembly of national airframes as well as those for nationally led export customers.