A much-needed jobs boost has been given to the Isle of Wight this week with the news that BAe Systems at Cowes has won planning permission for its major role in a multi-million-pound project to build six UK Type 45 destroyers.

The company at Cowes, one of the Island's major employers, has been given the nod by the Island's council for the key radar testing and support programme for the naval ships.

But in a separate development, the defence giant has become embroiled in an ethics row over a £28m military air traffic control system it wants to sell to one of the world's poorest countries.

The Prime Minister is said to back the Ministry of Defence which wants BAe Systems to be granted an export licence to sell the equipment to Tanzania.

The company argues that the deal would protect jobs on the Isle of Wight, but leading Labour opponents are calling for it to be scrapped.

Senior ministers discussed the sale at a stormy Cabinet meeting in Downing Street yesterday.

However, Andrew Turner, Tory MP for the Isle of Wight, said the system had already been put together at the firm's Cowes plant.

Some have viewed that as a clear sign it will go through although strong opposition is likely to continue.

News of the naval ships contract comes just a week after the Island's largest private employer, GKN Aerospace Services at East Cowes, announced 650 redundancies.

BAe Systems says the project will provide security for existing jobs at Cowes, and will create additional positions, although it is not yet clear how many.

BAe Systems and Vosper were awarded contracts to build the destroyers earlier this year.

The BAe Systems application was to build new office space and radar testing facilities, including towers 35-metres and 23-metres high, as part of the project.

The new facility at Cowes will test the hi-tech equipment to be used on the destroyers, particularly the radar, and provide support over the life of the destroyers' expected 30-year period of service.

The radar equipment to be used would conform with the guidelines of the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection, and would be used on an estimated 50 days a year.

BAe Systems has offered to carry out landscaping work which is necessary to ease the impact of the new facility on neighbouring areas.