DEFENCE giant BAE Systems has won a £2.5 billion deal to sell 20 aircraft to Oman, helping to sustain thousands of jobs in the UK.
The contract for 12 Typhoon and eight Hawk aircraft was welcomed by Prime Minister David Cameron, who paid a visit to the Middle Eastern state yesterday.
BAE said it was an important export contract that supports its strategy to grow international markets and export business.
The aircraft will be built in the UK and will help to sustain 6000 high-technology and engineering jobs across sites in Warton and Samlesbury, both in Lancashire; and Brough, East Yorkshire.
Aircraft manufacture will begin in 2014, with delivery expected in 2017.
The Omani ministry of defence becomes the seventh operator of Eurofighter Typhoon and the third export customer, after Saudi Arabia and Austria.
BAE said there was great interest in the Typhoon and Hawk aircraft.
Guy Griffiths, group managing director for BAE Systems' International business, said: "Receiving this contract is an honour and is excellent news for both BAE Systems and the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium.
"BAE Systems has a long history of working in Oman and we are delighted this contract will enable us to continue to work together."
Before his arrival in Muscat, the Prime Minister dismissed concerns about Britain selling arms in the region.
He said: "Every country in the world has a right to self-defence and I'm determined to put Britain's first-class defence industry at the forefront of this market, supporting 300,000 jobs across the country."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article