1,000 jobs hope.

ONE thousand new jobs will be on their way to Wales if an American company secures a pounds 3bn Ministry of Defence vehicle contract.

Oshkosh Truck Corporation is bidding to supply the Army with 8,500 military support vehicles over a 10-year period.

Wisconsin-based Oshkosh, whose vehicles have played a key role in US military campaigns in Afghanistan,Bosnia and the Gulf, said the trucks would be made at Llantrisant.

Other bidders for the contract include fellow US truck maker Stewart and Stevenson, Germany's Mercedes Benz and Austria's MAN,but Oshkosh is being tipped to win.

The contract would consist of pounds 1.4bnfor construction of the trucks and pounds 1.6bnfor associated support services.

Another Oshkosh subsidiary, refuse- vehicle manufacturer Geesink Norba Group,operates at Llantrisant.

That facility is being developed as the manufacturing base for a separate pounds 176m contract awarded to Oshkosh last year to supply,maintain and support 348 articulated fuel and water tankers for the British armed forces. Up to 180 jobs are expected to be created in Llantrisant.