Edinburgh plant to play a key role in £400m Eurofighter systems contract

SELEX Galileo, the defence electronics firm which employs more than 1,900 in Edinburgh, has been awarded a £400 million contract by BAE Systems to supply systems for the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Under the deal, the company will supply the Praetorian Defensive Aids Sub System which provides protection for pilots including warning systems to alert them to enemy missiles.

While the lion's share of the UK work on the contract is expected to be carried out at Selex Galileo's Luton facility, some of the manufacturing will be handled at the company's Edinburgh site.

A spokesman for Selex Galileo said that workshare agreements for the contract are still to be finalised.

Selex Galileo is the lead contractor for the Praetorian system with defence companies including Elettronica, Indra Sistemas and EADS also involved.

Selex Galileo chief executive Steve Mogford, said: "This contract award represents a significant achievement and reflects the confidence that the partner nations and Typhoon crews place in the Praetorian system.

"I'm proud that the relationships we've developed with our consortium partners, customers and end users have resulted in such a successful, effective and life-saving system."

The contract will see the first delivery take place in mid 2012 and will be deployed on the third tranche of Eurofighters. The systems will be supplied to all four Eurofighter partner nations - the UK, Italy, Spain and Germany.

Over 200 Praetorian systems have been delivered to date for previous batches of the Eurofighter with Selex Galileo sites in the UK and in Milan, Pomezia and Caselle in Italy involved.

In total up to 16,000 jobs in the UK aerospace industry are being supported under the third tranche of the Eurofighter programme which the UK government committed to last year.

The Crewe Toll site in Edinburgh became part of Selex when its Rome-based parent company Finmeccanica, one of Europe's largest defence firms, paid 355 million for a 75 per cent stake in the former avionics division of defence giant BAE Systems.

The division was merged with Finmeccanica's own avionics system and renamed Selex.

The site specialises in airborne radar, laser systems, electro-optics and is also the base for Selex Galileo micro electronics group and laser centre of excellence.

Earlier this year, the Scots operation won a Queen's Award for Enterprise for its achievement in increasing overseas revenues by 48 per cent in three years to 238m.

Selex Galileo employs more than 7,000 across the world and specialises in "mission critical" systems for military uses.

It is also involved in space exploration with customers including the European Space Agency (ESA), the Italian Space Agency and NASA. It invests 15 per cent of its annual revenues into research and development.