BAE Systems employs nearly 13,000 people in our Air sector at sites across the UK including: Warton and Samlesbury in the North West of England; Brough, RAF Coningsby and RAF Marham in the East of England; Frimley and Yeovil in the South of England; RAF Valley in Wales and Prestwick and RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.
Our people across our UK Air business are involved in developing future combat air and defence information systems and delivering support, maintenance and training to the Royal Air Force’s Typhoon, F-35 Lightning and Hawk fleets. Together, we provide vital frontline military capabilities to our UK and international customer base, playing our part in safeguarding national defence and security.
We have a significant presence in the North of England, employing more than 10,000 people across our Warton and Samlesbury sites. This equates to around one in ten of all manufacturing jobs in Lancashire, reflecting the region’s role as a hub for advanced engineering and the home of key programmes including Typhoon and Tempest, the UK’s future combat air system.
Charles Woodburn, BAE Systems Chief Executive, said: “Trading in the first half has been in line with expectations delivering strong order intake and good operational performance.
“Our diverse portfolio, together with our focus on programme execution, cash generation and efficiencies are helping us navigate the current macroeconomic challenges and position us well for sustained top line and margin growth in the coming years. We see further opportunities to enhance the medium- and long term outlook as our customers commit to increased defence spending to address the elevated threat environment.
“The positive outcome of the UK pension triennial review, along with our performance and confidence in the outlook enable us to maintain our guidance, continue to invest in our business and progress our ESG agenda whilst increasing returns to our shareholders.
“Good operational performance, execution on our strategy and confidence in the outlook enables us today to announce a 5% increase in the interim dividend as well as initiating a new, three-year share buyback programme for up to £1.5bn.”
Highlights from H1:
We received an order for more than £500m for our workshare for major unit production for an additional 20 Typhoon aircraft for the Spanish Air Force.
- We continued to work towards the delivery of Qatar’s first Typhoon jet later this year. Germany’s Typhoons are in production and the recent contract for Spain extends our Typhoon production beyond the middle of the decade.
- We delivered 74 F-35 rear fuselages from our Samlesbury facility.
- We secured an 11 year contract worth £590m to provide long-term support for the UK’s Hawk fleet, securing hundreds of jobs in North Wales. BAE Systems will also provide depth maintenance to the RAF’s iconic Red Arrows display team from RAF Valley in Anglesey.
- We announced plans to collaborate with Pipistrel on the development of light-weight, electric aircraft.
- We had record breaking early careers intake for 2022 across the UK, including 187 apprentice and 72 graduate positions in Lancashire.
