A CAMPAIGN group that aims to secure a 'steady drumbeat of orders for submarines and large, complex warships' has launched its action plan for the next two years.

The Keep Our Future Afloat Campaign (KOFAC) focuses on 'influencing defence procurement policy' to 'enable Barrow shipyard and its supplier base to sustain a core workload'.

KOFAC is led by the Unite and GMB trade unions, Barrow Borough Council, Cumbria County Council and BAE Systems, with input from companies that operate in the supply chain. 

The action plan says KOFAC's mission for the next two years is to use 'robust research' to create a 'sound informational base for distributing persuasive key messages'.

The group wants to persuade ministers, the official opposition and industry and trade union leaders of the 'need to sustain critical skills and capability in the naval submarine- and warship-building industrial bases'.

It aims to promote a number of core messages. 

The action plan says: "As long as nuclear weapons exist, there is a need to retain a strong, safe, secure and reliable submarine-based nuclear deterrent able to deliver Continuous At Sea Deterrent patrols and provide the ultimate guarantee of our national security against the most extreme risks from nuclear-armed adversaries.

"Unilateral disarmament cannot encourage other nations to disarm. Britain has reduced its nuclear arsenal – this has not led to other states ceasing improving their nuclear capability."

READ MORE: Hackney cab costs in Barrow could be set to rise – Here's when

Stuart Klosinski, secretariat, KOFAC, said the group was 'continuing now to make it [the action plan] available to anyone and everyone that's interested in it'.

He said the action plan was raising awareness of the contribution work in the Furness area and further afield made to 'both prosperity and defence'.

"We took a team down to the Labour Party conference, and we met with the shadow defence secretary, shadow defence procurement minister and the shadow defence spokesman in the Lords, and outlined what our campaign was about, encouraged them to invest in shipbuilding and the submarine industrial base, so that was one of the first parts of the new strategy," said Mr Klosinski.

"We've also engaged with some of the leading companies and are continuing to do that, and the same with politicians, including the local one."