Picket lines organised by Prospect trade union will be outside MOD Main Building, the Old War Office and other MOD establishments.

Their action is part of a national strike by 6,000 MOD professional staff against a two-year, below inflation pay offer of 2.5 per cent.

The increase is six months overdue from the August 2006 pay date and is being imposed on staff by MOD on the day of the strike. Nationwide, 9,000 specialists are covered by the offer.

Prospect General Secretary Paul Noon will join members outside MOD Main Building, Whitehall at 8am onwards while, in Bristol, Assistant General Secretary Dai Hudd will join members at MOD’s Abbey Wood site.

Specialists taking action include engineers, supervisors, nuclear experts, stores officers, procurement specialists and other logistics staff.

Prospect members across the country will demonstrate outside defence sites at:

• Foxhill, Bath
• Devonport Naval Base, Plymouth
• Portsmouh Naval Base
• RAF Brampton, Wyton and Henlow, Cambridgeshire
• RAF Sealand and RAF St Athan, Wales
• and Faslane Naval Base and Coulport in Scotland.

Prospect National Secretary Steve Jary said: "For years our members have worked at immmense personal cost to deliver the vital support without which the front line cannot function. Now MOD wants to reward them with a below inflation pay offer stretching across two years.

"That is just not good enough. Our members’ skills command higher salaries in the private sector and they are fed up with their loyalty being exploited by the government in this cynical manner. If ministers don’t watch out, professionals will vote with their feet and walk out on MOD for good, doing lasting damage to the operational capacity of Britain’s armed forces."

Prospect has told MOD it is ready to re-open negotiations on the 2006-07 offer at any time but that if there is no movement from the department it will ballot again on further industrial action.

Because of the sensitive roles of many of its members, the union wrote to Defence Secretary Des Browne offering to exempt staff in key safety or operational roles from the action. MOD has identified a list of 65 staff who by agreement with Prospect will work normally on February 28 so as not to jeopardise essential support functions.

Nationally, the action will hit engineering, technical and logistics work at naval bases, RAF stations, maintenance workshops, telecommunications facilities, overseas facilities, training establishments, facilities management, stores depots, the Defence Procurement Agency, Defence Logistics Organisation and intelligence services.