BAE SYSTEMS has warned of job losses in 2001 but they are unlikely to be made in Barrow.

The defence giant, which employs 4,000 people in Barrow shipyards, said it is experiencing "financial challenges" mainly in its military aircraft programmes.

Charlie Miller, for BAE, told the Gazette: "There will be some reduction in head count across the company.

We do not know if that will affect Barrow, we have not completed that work."

He said it was up to the company's individual businesses to decide if they would be making redundancies and that work would probably be completed within the current financial year.

But he revealed that the company has said in a trading statement that it hopes the recovery in its Operations division, of which the shipyards are part, will continue.

Meanwhile, Richard O'Brien, for the MSF union, said he was not concerned for Barrow workers.

"They have specifically identified problems in their military aircraft division and have not said their submarines aren't selling.

There are no indications that any jobs will be lost in Barrow."

BAE is the result of a merger of British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic and is one of the largest makers of military equipment in the world.