“What future for the UK’s defence industry” will be held on Monday September 13 at the Manchester Convention Centre at 5.30pm.

Speakers include: Professor Trevor Taylor, from the Royal United Services Institute; Bob Keen, head of government relations at BAE; and Kevin Coyne, national officer, Unite. The meeting will be chaired by Prospect deputy general secretary Mike Clancy.

Clancy said the announcement by BAE of another 1,000 redundancies vividly illustrates the degree of uncertainty in the industry caused by the imminent Strategic Defence and Security Review and deep cuts to the defence budget expected in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

“The defence industry makes a major contribution to the UK economy.Industry shares our concern that the cuts will further erode the infrastructure and skills that will be necessary if the UK is to take advantage of any economic upturn.

"For civilian defence workers in the public and private sectors the impact could be devastating. The meeting will explore what their prospects are, and what they should do next,” said Clancy.

Prospect represents 15,000 civilian specialists in the Ministry of Defence and the wider defence industry,