THE Red Arrows' iconic jets could soon be built overseas at the cost of hundreds of British jobs, MPs have warned.

MPs warned that future generations of the plane, used by the RAF Aerobatic Display Team, which is currently based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, will be built in India, the US and other overseas factories.

Defence giant BAE Systems is scrapping the manufacture of the Hawk trainer aircraft at its factory in Brough, East Yorkshire, the House of Commons heard on Thursday.

Tory MP David Davis said: "Whether by accident or design, BAE is effectively moving to a position where the emblematic Hawk aircraft, the Red Arrows aircraft, is going to be made abroad."

The Hawk, which can fly at up to 600mph, has become an aviation icon since going into service with the RAF in 1976. Generations of aviation enthusiasts have marvelled at its aerobatics.

But a row over the aircraft's future erupted when Mr Davis – whose Haltemprice and Howden constituency covers the threatened plant – raised concerns in the Commons about 3,000 job cuts announced by BAE Systems in September.

The cuts include up to 900 skilled engineering jobs at the Brough factory, where production of the Hawk is scheduled to end by 2013.

BAE Systems has said the decision is largely due to a fall in orders for the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.

But Mr Davis told MPs it would also almost certainly mean the end of UK production of the Hawk.

He said the treatment of the "loyal and decent workforce" at Brough was a "disgrace."

He said: "The size of the cutback is grievous, and is grimly symptomatic of the decline of manufacturing in this country.

"What matters most is the misery this decision visits on individuals, on families, on whole communities.

"It is one of those factories where grandfathers, fathers and sons have successively worked, maintaining a proud tradition of skilled work down the generations."

Ian Gent, full-time union convenor at Brough said: "The problem that we face is that the Hawk jets which the Red Arrows fly are due to go out of service in 2017-18.

"At the moment the prospect is that BAE is not going to continue manufacturing Hawk in the UK which leaves us with the prospect of the red arrows flying an Indian built Hawk, or Italian or Korean built planes or worst still that the Red Arrows are disbanded."

A spokesperson for BAE Systems said that the company will retain a manufacturing capability for Hawk at their factories in Samlesbury and Warton in the UK in the support of any export orders.

However, during last week's debate Mr Davis unearthed a series of articles which suggest that India is being lined up to take on more Hawk work – at the very time when BAE is ending manufacturing at Brough, which has been known for many years as the "home of the Hawk".

Previously, BAE Systems has also confirmed that it is bidding to build hundreds of Hawk trainers in America.

However, the company has said the arrangement reached with their US "manufacturing partner" Northrop Grumman only applies to the "T-X Program" to replace T-38 training jets.