The end of Hawk manufacturing at Brough will see a maximum of just 25 compulsory redundancies made, BAE Systems has revealed.
When the axe fell on the production of the jet - made iconic by the Red Arrows and used by air forces around the globe - virtually 400 jobs were flagged as being at risk.
While more than half of the affected workforce have opted for voluntary terms, 133 have now been found new roles as the East Yorkshire site becomes an engineering centre for some of the biggest defence projects ever embarked upon.
And the success of Covid-enforced remote working has seen further job options created for those previously facing a bleak future or relocation - as projects not based in East Yorkshire opened up.
The final Hawk jets are now being built for the Qatari Air Force, with that contract - the last secured - coming to an end this month.
Brough site director Dave Corfield described it as an “amazing effort” to retain so many in new roles within the company, having been achieved on top of handling the pandemic.
“With the 25 people who are at risk of compulsory redundancy, we are still working hard to see what we can do, and we have some actions in place to reduce that number further,” he said.
“We have seen a real resurgence and growth in our engineering footprint - the design and development - and that has provided a number of these opportunities.
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“65 people from manufacturing are in the process of transferring over to new careers in engineering.”
A new training programme has been devised to deal with the transition in the pandemic.
“The feedback we have had so far has been incredibly positive,” Mr Corfield said, while flagging up the benefit home working has brought.
“The impact of Covid across the whole of BAE Systems, with two thirds working from home, has allowed us to look differently at the business, and in a lot of cases the precise location is not as important,” Mr Corfield said. “It has opened a lot of job opportunities for people from Brough in US programmes, in information management and technology and project management. Historically they would have had to relocate to another part of the 海角视频. We have been able to move the work to Brough.
“It means there have been a further 100 jobs we’ve allowed people to apply for, and that means we’ve been able to do further mitigation and get 133 people new roles for the future, which is a fantastic good news story for themselves and the site.
“Brough was the home of the Hawk, now the future is all about engineering. We are going to have people working in large numbers on a lot of programmes other than Hawks. Less than half of the people now work on Hawks, the rest are on Tempest, Typhoon, F35 and Dreadnought.
“Tempest and Dreadnought are not for a year or so either, they are long programmes and having a big slice of that in East Yorkshire provides sustainable employment.”
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Against that the site has committed to 100 apprentices in the next five years, many at degree level, and a legacy of the Hawk will be a rounded knowledge.
Unlike many projects where BAE is in consortium with other specialists for various elements, the Hawk is ‘fully owned’.
“There are 650 Hawks around the world flying every day, it is a large international footprint,” Mr Corfield said. “We have some Hawks about to go into service - brand new off the production line - and they will fly until the late 2040s. Someone needs to provide in service support, all of that engineering effort is out of the Brough site.
“We have a team dedicated to supporting, with others multi-tasking. An ‘unknown’ benefit of having Hawk support is it supports the whole aeroplane. Our strong engineering disciplines at Brough look across the whole aircraft - propulsion, airframe, weapons.It makes us a really attractive site to get involved in other programmes, and that’s where Tempest and Dreadnought fit in - two spectacular programmes we have here. That becomes our Hawk legacy.”
It was October 2017 when the announcement was made about the end of Hawk manufacturing, should orders not materialise.
“We have worked really hard with the site management teams and trade union groups to look at providing as many mitigating positions as possible,” Mr Corfield said, praising all involved as productivity also returned to pre-Covid levels.
It is envisaged BAE Systems will emerge in the new year as an employer of 650.