The company says the redundancies are due to a lack of orders for its Hawk trainer aircraft.

BAE Systems is starting talks with unions on Thursday to try to minimise the effect of the announcement.

Brough acting managing director Mark Parkinson said: "This is an order book issue and in no way reflects on the performance of the Brough work force."

We are particularly concerned that they are still struggling to secure UK orders

John Wall AMICUS union

A programme of selective voluntary redundancies, early retirement, re-training and re-skilling will be offered to employees.

But BAE Systems says up to 450 jobs are likely to be lost at the plant.

Despite the job losses, the company says Ministry of Defence (MoD) orders for the aircraft trainers are still to be "vigorously pursued".

"This decision does not diminish our ability to design and manufacture Hawk aircraft at the Brough site," said Mr Parkinson.

The Amicus trade union says the announcement "causes enormous concern" and blames the government for the drop in orders.

National secretary John Hall told BBC News Online: "What we have is a world-class product, produced by one of the most highly-skilled workforces in Europe.

"We are particularly concerned that they are still struggling to secure UK orders when our own MoD has informed us that they are considering the Italian jet trainers.

"We need tangible evidence from the UK government that it is prepared to support the manufacturing sector."