Lebanese Ministry of Information
James Titcomb
17 September 2017 BAE Systems will supply 24 Typhoon fighter jets to Qatar, preserving thousands of British manufacturing jobs in the biggest export deal for the Typhoon project in a decade.
Defence secretary Michael Fallon signed a statement of intent with his Qatari counterpart Khalid bin Mohammed al Attiyah on Sunday in Doha. It is likely to lead to Britain’s first major defence contract with the
Gulf state.
The deal, which may be drawn up and signed in around a month, is expected to be worth billions of pounds and safeguard BAE’s Typhoon project at Warton in Lancashire past 2019.
Assembly of the jets accounts for around 4,000 jobs at the company and around 10,000 in the UK overall, but there have been fears that work could cease within two years without a new order.
It is the first Typhoon export deal Britain has struck since 2012, when it agreed a £2.5bn deal to supply 20 aircraft to Oman, and the biggest since 2007, when Saudi Arabia purchased 72 jets.
The last Saudi jet was delivered earlier this year and BAE has struggled to pin down a new deal, throwing the future of the project into doubt.
“BAE Systems welcomes a formal Statement of Intent between the governments of the UK and Qatar signed today in Doha,” a spokesman said. “Discussions are ongoing and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
Mr Fallon said the agreement followed several years of negotiations and was “an important moment in our defence relationship and the basis for even closer defence co-operation between our two countries”.
He said Qatar remains a strategic ally for the UK despite a diplomatic crisis that has seen the country cut off from much of the rest of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and three other countries severed ties with the Qataris in June and hopes of a swift resolution were dashed when talks between the countries broke down.
