New planes for the Luftwaffe will safeguard 15,000 British jobs and generate £1.3bn of work in the UK
Germany has ordered £1.3bn of 38 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets from BAE Systems for the German Air Force, providing a boost to the UK economy.
Work will start in 2021 at BAE’s Lancashire site and will last for a number of years which will keep people in engineering jobs in the North of England.
Its Warton plant in Lancashire is likely to build the fuselages and jet tails for the planes when the order from the Luftwaffe is finalised.
10,000 more jobs will be created to support over 5,000 BAE employees to support the Typhoon programme.
The group believes that the project could support 20,000 jobs between 2026 and 2050, and add £25billion to the UK economy by 2050.
BAE shares rose 2.6 per cent, or 11.8p, to 475.4p. But overall its stock has fallen around 16 per cent so far this year, leaving it worth £15.3billion.
Charles Woodburn, chief executive of BAE Systems said, “Germany’s decision to purchase additional Typhoons reinforces the aircraft’s position as one of the world’s most successful combat military aircraft.
“The Typhoon programme makes a significant contribution to the UK economy, generating billions of pounds through exports and supporting more than 15,000 jobs across the UK including thousands of highly skilled roles in the North of England.”
The combat sector provides around £6bn of revenue each year in the UK, and export sales of the fighter jet has returned over double of the government’s £12bn investment into the UK programme.
BAE’s CTO Nigel Whitehead added, “This is an extremely ambitious and fantastic programme and we are making great progress with it.
“We are coming up with a highly-capable, adaptable and affordable aircraft.
“It starts with the radar, developed by Leonardo in the UK, which has 10,000 times more data capture than existing classes of radar. That is a huge advance.
“There is the amazing cockpit where everything is projected into the visor in front of you.
“The world is brought to life by augmented reality and artificial reality. It is a phenomenal experience.
“We also have a fantastic new engine concept, with much greater power density.
“This means the Tempest will go further, go faster and produce less CO2.”
The order was awarded to BAE Systems by Eurofighter.
Eurofighter is the consortium which represents the core nations’ industrial partners including Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo.
BAE Systems will reportedly deliver more than a third of the components for each of the new aircraft ordered by the German Air Force.
This will include the aircraft’s front fuselage and tail with the final build being undertaken by Airbus in Manching in Germany.
It is expected the new aircraft will join the existing German Air Force Typhoon fleet from mid-2020s.
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