BAE Systems to slash 2,000 jobs as orders dry up

BAE Systems will eliminate almost 2,000 jobs as it struggles to secure new orders for the Eurofighter Typhoon warplane and slims down its naval ships and cyber-security businesses.

Some 1,400 posts will go at the company’s military-aircraft unit, which employs about 12,500 people, with a further 375 positions to be eliminated in the maritime division and up to 150 at the Applied Intelligence cyber arm, BAE said in a statement yesterday.

While Europe’s biggest defence company last month won an outline order for 24 Eurofighter jets from Qatar, worth as much as £8.6 billion (€9.62bn), that deal may take months or years to seal.