Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has announced a further £350 million worth of funding for the next stage of design work on the 'Successor' submarines which the government hopes will replace the current Vanguard class Trident submarines.
BAE Systems has been given permission to proceed with £315 million worth of design work, and a further £38 million will be spent at Babcock.
The government claims that the spending investment will contribute towards maintaining 1,200 jobs which are dependent on the Trident replacement programme. The funding follows an initial award of £350 million to BAE Systems, Babcock, and Rolls-Royce for submarine design work which was announced in May 2012, and is part of a total of around £3.9 billion which it was announced would be spent on design work before 2016 in last year's 'Initial Gate' statement.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the length of time the submarine development process takes means it is essential to proceed with early-stage investment decisions and design work without delay.
BAE Systems is seeking to recruit mechanical, electrical power, propulsion, quality and safety engineers, and naval architects to fulfil the contract.