£80m in avionics contracts awarded to Rochester's BAE Systems

For the next five years, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy's air forces will continue to receive maintenance and support for the avionics of the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from BAE Systems.

The £80 million agreements guarantee continuing maintenance and repairs for critical avionics (a mixture of 'aviation' and 'electronics') components including displays, flight controls and helmet mounted displays, ensuring that the Typhoon is always prepared for deployment and action.

Avionics service and support is a core focus for BAE Systems’ facility in Kent. The integrated team based at RAF Coningsby is embedded into the Typhoon Total Availability Enterprise contract and they work closely together to troubleshoot and undertake any and all repairs. Their guaranteed turnaround times allow the customer to accurately plan aircraft operations.

Eurofighter is Europe's largest defence programme. In addition to technological capabilities, the programme secures more than 100,000 jobs in Europe. At present, 681 Eurofighter aircraft have been sold to nine nations.

Jim Whittington is the Senior Project Manager at BAE Systems’ Rochester site. He said this about the contracts: “BAE Systems’ avionics service and support team helps our customers ensure that Typhoon is ready to secure our skies and support the UK’s international allies 24/7, 365 days a year."

"The flexibility within these services will help increase our customers’ flying capability, whereby we are able to meet any additional service demands.”

Main picture courtesy of BAE Systems

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