A top engineering firm is geared up to be one of the of the key parts of British defence work.
Defence Secretary Michael Fallon toured David Brown Gears yesterday to see the work they’re doing to boost the Royal Navy’s fleet.
The Lockwood firm has secured a multi-million pound contract to build gears for the next generation of warships.
The frigates are being built on the Clyde with firms throughout the UK making parts for them.
Managing director Steve Watson and defence director David Scott showed Mr Fallon and Jason McCartney, Colne Valley Conservative MP, around the factory.
They spoke to Dave Cooper, who has been with the firm for 40 years, plus new apprentices.
Mr Fallon said: “Jason has been a persistent champion of this company and its defence order book so I was invited to see first hand the work being done to build the gears for the Type 26 frigates and hear more about the new jobs created.
“The gears are amazing. They are getting bigger and bigger but the technical specifications are getting more precise. I saw microns half a human hair in terms of sensitivity.
“What’s being made here is high-precision British engineering at its best to modernise the Royal Navy and create jobs here in West Yorkshire.
“David Brown is a very important company for British defence. They are unrivalled in Britain with their nearest rivals in Germany and America and they’re creating jobs. This constituency has seen unemployment drop by almost half since 2010 and this is part of that.”
Mr Fallon was recently on board HMS Duncan for the Navy’s ‘Thursday’s war’, a weekly training exercise.
He added: “It was an exercise where ships pretend to attack you and I was on board a Type 45 which has a David Brown gearbox so I’ve seen these gears turn a ship like a sixpence. It is all very impressive.”
There has been criticism of cuts to defence spending but Mr Fallon said the forces were modernising.
“We are investing in the future,” he said. “In 10 years we’ll have spent £160bn overall, not all of it with David Brown but some of it. We will have modern frigates, aircraft carriers and a replacement Trident vanguard submarine.
“We have the fifth biggest defence budget in the world. We need to modernise, we have to face the threats.”
Mr Watson said the Defence Secretary’s visit was validation of the work the team do.
“It’s great to have both Michael and Jason here supporting what we’re doing and the jobs we’re creating,” he said.
Mr McCartney added: “Part of my role as MP is to bang the drum for local firms and we’ve some great manufacturing firms, but I’m greedy and I want more of them to be in the supply chain for these large orders which helps to create long-term jobs.
“This defence contract is for a fleet of ships that will deliver aid to support relief efforts, the ships will be part of humanitarian work we do, in addition to the military element.”
