Annex
| The defence employers we visited in the defence industry in Scotland and their vulnerability to Separation
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| Vector Aerospace, Almondbank, Perth | Vector Aerospace carries out maintenance and repair on aircraft parts. It is over 80% reliant on contracts to maintain components for the Ministry of Defence's aircraft fleet of over 40 Chinooks and 130 Tornadoes. It is unclear whether the Perth site would be awarded any such contracts when Vector has an alternative site in Hampshire. The question remains whether a separate Scotland would have Chinooks or Tornadoes in such quantities and how that would provide equivalent work to replace that lost if the MoD withdrew.
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| Selex Galileo, Edinburgh | The future of the Selex Galileo site in Edinburgh is very much at risk under separation. Their radar work on Typhoon and the Joint Strike Fighter is a division of work negotiated by the UK with other partner countries. The UK would exempt the contract from open competition and definitely want to retain it within the UK. It receives a considerable amount of research funding from the MoD to help it maintain its reputation as a cutting edge high-tech manufacturer, but this funding would be redirected to a facility in the UK. Selex is a List X site with access to confidential information which the MoD would not want outside the UK. In addition, Selex work on joint projects with the US would be highly vulnerable if a separate Scotland could not assure the US that its policies would not adversely affect US interests.
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| Thales, Glasgow | Thales is an international firm who specialise in the development and manufacture of the latest defence technology. They provide a range of electronic and optronics equipment to the Ministry of Defence and export customers, including on an Urgent Operational Requirement basis. Thales is a List X site, cleared by MoD to access confidential information. If the MoD withdrew its custom, and was not willing to place orders in a separate Scotland, then it would put a big question mark over the viability of the Glasgow site.
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| Chemring, Ardeer | Chemring is a List X site and receives a considerable amount of work from the MoD, won through open competition, and extensive export orders. We do not expect separation will have a substantial impact upon their operations in Scotland, although their share of MoD contracts may be at risk.
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| Raytheon, Glenrothes | Raytheon design and manufacture components, predominantly exported to the US, for guidance systems used in weapons like the Tomahawk missile—a missile the UK buys. Raytheon would be at risk, unless a separate Scotland could introduce the necessary export and security regulations to the satisfaction of their potential US partners.
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| DM Beith (Defence Munitions), Ayrshire |
The Ministry of Defence has eleven munitions stores spread across the UK, including three in Scotland. DM Beith also carries out maintenance and upgrade work on complex weapons such as Spearfish, Tomahawk, Brimstone, and AMRAAMs. Some are used by the nuclear submarines operating out of Faslane so if the fleet leaves, then the weapons and the work leave too. Philip Dunne MP, Minister for Defence, told us "We have facilities south of the border to handle the sort of maritime munitions that presently are mostly handled at Beith, which could be moved south".
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| BAE Systems, Clyde | BAE Systems build Royal Navy complex warships at the two shipyards on the Clyde: Govan and Scotstoun. The UK has not built a warship outside the UK for 200 years. A separate Scotland would not be eligible for orders restricted to the UK.
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| Babcock, Rosyth | Two Queen Elizabeth aircraft carriers, the largest surface ships ever constructed for the UK, are being assembled in a specially built dock at Rosyth. The same rules for building warships in the UK apply for maintenance within the UK, and UK Defence Ministers have said that security concerns could stop Rosyth being given work, spread over the next 50 years, to maintain the carriers in a separate Scotland.
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