BABCOCK has landed a new submarine missile contract that will safeguard around 150 jobs into the 2020s.

Work on the £80 million contract will be carried out in Rosyth and Bristol.

The work from General Dynamics Electric Boat is to manufacture 22 tactical missile tube assemblies as part of the Common Missile Compartment (CMC) project for the UK Successor and US Ohio Class replacement submarine programmes.

This work, which will begin soon and is expected to complete in the early 2020s, is part of the second phase of the project and places Babcock as a critical supplier of missile tube assemblies.

Babcock chief executive Archie Bethel said: “We are delighted to be continuing to support these internationally-significant programmes with our highly specialised and experienced teams and look forward to working closely with our customer as this programme continues to develop further over the coming years.

“Supporting Electric Boat with the CMC project for the future submarines also underpins our wider involvement in the UK Successor programme where we have already secured the supply of other critical equipment and are also heavily involved in the design phase with a focus on the overall through life performance and operational cost of the future platforms.”

UK Defence Minister Harriett Baldwin added: “I am delighted that Babcock have secured this critically-important project. This contract is a strong endorsement of our highly-skilled and globally-competitive defence industry and will secure around 150 jobs in Rosyth.

"With Faslane set to be home of all the Royal Navy’s submarines by 2020, this is further evidence of the benefits that defence brings to the economy and to Scotland.

“It is this kind of British expertise that will see the Successor programme deliver billions of pounds of investment across the UK, sustaining thousands of jobs from Scotland to the South of England.”