Although a decision was made in November 2010 to reduce the specifications and capability requirements of the Global Combat Ship design, BAE Systems' design concepts by 2014 had returned to their original working baseline of a large 6,900 tonne warship. In February 2015, the MoD and BAE Systems signed a £859 million contract to continue development and progress towards manufacturing. A 12-month demonstration phase began on 1 April 2015 and, after a 12-month extension in March 2016, was scheduled to be completed in June 2017. On 2 July 2017, BAE Systems announced it had been awarded a c£3.7 billion contract by the UK MoD to manufacture the first three Type 26 ships. The statement said that steel would be cut for the first ship in Glasgow "in the coming weeks."