WORKERS at a Valleys defence contractor face the axe as jobs cuts across the UK were announced.

General Dynamics, which has sites in Oakdale and Newbridge, will cut 185 jobs across the UK.

A spokesman for the firm, which employs around 800 people in Gwent and a total of 1,600 at ten sites around the UK, said the cuts will be made across all the sites.

He was unable to provide a figure as to how many jobs will be lost in Gwent.

He said the redundancy process is due to finish at the end of May, but said the majority of those redundancies have been voluntary.

"There will be some compulsory redundancies."

The cuts follow a re-organisation which took place earlier this year, following the retirement of the former managing director, Sandy Wilson. Steve Rowbotham has been appointed Chief Operating Officer.

The spokesman added: "This created an opportunity for re-alignment of GD UK with it parent organisation in the US and Canada. This kind of re-organisation does tend to result in streamlining."