WORKERS at BAE Systems this week faced more gloom after an announcement on January 10 that more job losses are on the cards due to falling sales of the Hawk jet.

The aerospace company is blaming the latest round of job cuts on a shortfall in the amount of orders expected for the jet trainer aircraft, as well as a delay to the Nimrod programme and a general drop in orders from the Ministry of Defence.

Andy Bunce, communications manager at BAE Systems, said all these factors meant the company had more resources than it needed.

He said a massive operational review had revealed drastic action was needed to combat the effects of falling sales and orders.

He said: "One of many ways we could solve these problems is by cutting the workforce -- job losses are a likely outcome." Although it is too early to predict how many staff could go or which sites would be hit, he said: "Any cuts would be across the board and redundancies would be voluntary."

This is likely to mean bad news for at least some of the 10,000 staff employed at Warton and Samlesbury.

Production of the Nimrod, an RAF maritime patrol craft, ran into trouble last year when BAE bosses realised they would need to inject more money. The programe was then revised, putting back the estimated 2003 completion date by two years. Mark Alan from the Manufacturing Science and Finance (MSF) union at Warton said: "I am disappointed at the news especially when you consider there has been more than 2,000 job reductions at Warton and Samlesbury over the last two years.

"Although the company has not yet quoted numbers, as a trade union we are very concerned at the prospect of more job cuts and will do everything we can to resist them."