There are more than 2,000 Dara workers at RAF St Athan

The Defence Aviation Repair Agency (Dara) - a government agency set up to maintain and repair aircraft on the site - is losing work to the RAF.

And there are fears this could undermine thousands more jobs planned for the site under Project Red Dragon - a world-class aviation centre.

Vale of Glamorgan MP John Smith said the losses would be a "serious blow" to the area.

He told the BBC Wales news website he would try to play for time by stalling the cutbacks through a consultation process.

He said: "The idea now is to extend the consultation process as long as possible, so see how many can of the jobs can go through natural wastage, early retirement, voluntary retirement, that sort of thing."

Our concern this morning is that we are facing the prospect of the death of Dara by a thousand cuts. Jim Dromey, TGWU

Dara, which has two sites in Wales, is the biggest government-owned aerospace repair facility in Europe and its future had been under review for several months.

Some of the losses announced on Wednesday at the plant, which currently employs 2,000 people, are down to a decision to upgrade Harrier jump-jets "in-house" by the RAF at its base at Cottesmore in Leicestershire, instead of St Athan.

The work in St Athan is due to be succeeded by the �77m Project Red Dragon - a world-class aviation centre complete with superhangar.

But the rest of the jobs losses are down to streamlining - mainly because Project Red Dragon will be operated over a space of 100-acres where as Dara currently works over a 1,000-acre site.

Dara carries out repairs to RAF aircraft

"Employees always knew there were going to be less people needed to go into the new site than we need to work on the old 1,000-acre site," a spokesman for Dara said.

Welsh Economic Development Minister Andrew Davies admitted that many of these job losses were not unexpected.

"That Dara would need to make efficiencies to become even more competitive in a tough market is a recognised fact," he said.

"But clearly one that does not make this announcement any more welcome or any less of a blow to those directly affected."

He said the development of Project Red Dragon was "crucial" to maintaining the south Wales aerospace cluster, and if successful, would create 5,000 jobs over 10 years.

Jack Dromey, deputy general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, said: "This is a tragedy for St Athan. I warned three times last year that the so-called end-to-end review threatened Dara generally and St Athan in particular.

"Our concern this morning is that we are facing the prospect of the death of Dara by a thousand cuts."

Welsh assembly First Minister Rhodri Morgan had been in talks with Defence Minister Adam Ingram on Tuesday.

An assembly spokesman said: "This news is obviously very disappointing. We've always known that Dara would need to make efficiencies to become even more competitive in a tough market but there's no question that this is a real blow for the people involved."

David Melding AM for South Wales Central described the news as a "big blow for the Vale area".

"DARA is one of the Vale's biggest employers and the future of some 2,000 highly skilled workers and their families is now uncertain."