Aero-engine giant Rolls-Royce’s Bristol plant looks set to gain from a major review of the group’s defence work which is resulting in the loss of nearly 400 jobs at a sister site in the Midlands.
A relocation of work on military planes, helicopters and ships over the next few years will cost 378 jobs at the plant at Ansty, near Coventry – almost half its 800-strong workforce.
The jobs will be lost or relocated over several years as defence contracts are progressively run down at Ansty, unions said. They called into question the future of the plant, which is old and has not received the kind of investment that has gone into Rolls’ Patchway plant near Bristol. Around £75m was spent on a new engine manufacturing facility at Patchway three years ago.
Defence work being relocated from Ansty includes contracts on Apache helicopter engines, the Eurofighter Typhoon and Royal Navy ships.
It is also understood that Patchway, which employs more than 3,500 people, will benefit from work transferred from a Rolls-Royce site in Dahlewitz, Germany – its largest site in the country.
Patchway is Rolls-Royce’s prime engineering, manufacturing and assembly site for its military engines including increasingly marine engines. It already builds – or part builds – a range of engines including for the Hawk trainer aircraft, Eurofighter Typhoon and A400M military transporter. It is also home to Rolls-Royce’s pioneering lift-fan technology which was used on the Harrier jumpjet and will be deployed on some versions of the new Joint Strike Fighter.
