Jobs are under threat at a Ministry of Defence missile range in the Western Isles.

Operator QinetiQ plans to cut 200 posts across the UK and has entered a six-week consultation with staff.

At least 19 jobs are thought to be under threat at the Hebrides Range on South Uist, about 20% of its workforce.

The range was saved from closure in a previous round of defence cuts in 2009, saving more than 125 jobs.

A QinetiQ spokesman said: "We have completed an outline design for QinetiQ that puts the right people with the right skills in the right place to deliver for our customers.

"It creates a number of new roles but will result in a net reduction of around 200 roles across QinetiQ - approximately 3% of our total workforce of 6210 - achieved through a number of measures, including attrition and some redundancies.

"We are committed to doing everything we can to protect employment, supporting those affected to redeploy them into new roles where possible.

"Our priority is to discuss the changes with individual employees across our sites. The consultation period will run for six weeks and until this process is complete it is not possible to give details of the numbers of redundancies at any specific site."

The Hebrides Range is largest missile testing facility in Britain. Last year, a US warship destroyed a missile fired into space from South Uist during war games in a UK first.

It is also the largest private sector employer in the islands.