Workers at aerospace giant BAe Systems are facing an uncertain future with the announcement of 3,500 job losses.

Company union officials were called to BAe's head office in Hampshire to be told about the proposed job cuts which are likely to affect all plants in the UK - including Basildon and Chelmsford.

The trimming of BAe's 70,000-strong UK workforce is being made in a bid to make the company "leaner and meaner".

Workers at the Christopher Martin Road site in Basildon research and produce top secret military equipment for both the British government and foreign regimes.

They include missile components and the heat-seeking devices used by Nato troops to bomb Serbian targets during the Kosovo crisis and the Gulf war.

BAe said it would be seek ing savings of at least £275million when it merged with GEC Marconi last year, including a cut in posts.

The company, however, which hopes to find the job cuts through volunteers, has stated it will continue to recruit 2,000 senior engineers every year.

John Wall, national officer of the Manufacturing Science and Finance Union, said: "The merger meant that restructuring was going to be inevitable.

"However we hope that the level of reduction will not be so great that it will damage the effectiveness of the company and the co-operation of unions.

"We will resist compulsory redundancies and will engage in detailed negotiations with the company."

BAe declined to comment on the scale of the cutbacks or the timing of any announcement.

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