IT'S been a long and frustrating wait, but shipbuilding is back on the Tyne, and the furure's looking bright.

Defence secretary Geoff Hoon may not have been very popular on South Tyneside, but he won't have to buy a drink in Wallsend for a good few years after he announced two landing ships would be heading for Swan Hunter.

It was fitting that the last Royal Navy frigate built at Swans, HMS Richmond, was on the Tyne last week - heralding a new era of shipbuilding beginning with the alternative ship logistic (ALSL) vessels.

Six years ago HMS Richmond slipped her moorings and left Swans. Less than a year later and the yard was closed with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs.

In stepped Jaap Kroese, a Dutch multi-millionaire who has been instrumental in turning round its fortunes.

But what Mr Kroese and the unions don't want to see is the new contract to be a one-off, and workers again having no security in the industry.

Leader of engineering union, the AEEU, Sir Ken Jackson spoke of a long-term strategy needed for shipbuilding.

"We need an end to the feast and famine that has dogged the industry," he said.

Although Cammell Laird's Hebburn yard missed out on the £300m roll-on roll-off ferry contract, the ALSL was seen as more crucial because of the effect it would have for future projects to sustain the industry.

George Bruce of the department of marine technology at Newcastle University said the contract could be used by the MoD to size up Swans for future and bigger contracts.

He said: "It is the first serious new shipbuilding contract on the Tyne for years.

"It has all the potential to lead to greater things with new contracts round the corner, but Swans still need a lot of work on its infrastructure.

"It has a berth large enough to build one of the new 40,000 tonne carriers, but it would be unable to launch it."

In its glory days before receivership, Swans built some of the Royal Navy's most famous ships, including aircraft carrier the Ark Royal.

The Future's are the ambitious replacement for the current Royal Navy Aircraft carriers. Work to draw up the designs for the two replacements for the Navy's old through deck cruisers Invincible, Illustrious and Ark Royal is well underway, but it will be between two and three years before contracts are awarded.

The new aircraft carriers are to be built at a cost of around £2bn, and on top of this another 12 destroyers, Type 45s, will be built to replace the present Type 42s at a cost of £12bn.

The ships will provide the backbone of the Royal Navy's air defences for the first half of the next century, and will provide the biggest defence contracts since the Second World War.

The new carriers will be substantially larger, displacing around 45,000 tonnes compared to just 18,000-tonnes for the Invincible class, and carrying five times as many aircraft.

And according to Captain Richard Sharpe, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, Swans is one of only three British yards capable of building them.

"Barrow, Harland and Wolfe and Swans are the three Brirtish yards capable of building these carriers," he said. "If it is successful with the ALSLs it is certainly in line for the Future's contract."

With discussion for new apprenticeships at the yard already under way with unions the hope is that the ALSLcontracts will lead to others.

Swans could have reclaimed its rightful place amongst the world's best shipbuilders, and the estimated 2,000 jobs it will create may just prove to be the tip of the iceberg