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£200M Starstreak order for Shorts Missile Systems

14 June 2001

Shorts Missile Systems Limited (SMS), the UK prime contractor for Very Short Range Air Defence Systems (VSHORADS), today announced the award by the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) of its largest ever missile production contract for the latest generation Starstreak High Velocity Missile (HVM).

The UK MOD and SMS have signed a contract valued at #200M to supply Starstreak to the British Army for low level air defence operations.

This contract follows previous development and production contracts for the Starstreak HVM which was formally accepted into UK Service in 1997. This new order, which will sustain production in Northern Ireland for the next five years, will equip British Army Air Defence Forces responsible for front line, rapid reaction and reserve force operations.

This major production contract will help to sustain the 550 person workforce of SMS as well as employment within the company's high quality supply chain in Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, including companies such as Raytheon, Royal Ordnance, Hunting Engineering, Boxmore Plastics and Nobel Enterprises.

Speaking at its Belfast headquarters today Terry Stone, Chief Executive Officer of SMS said, "The company is both delighted and honoured to sign this contract with MOD. It shows the confidence and belief that our main customer has in the Starstreak system, SMS and its people. Starstreak, as the most modern defence system in its field, meets the needs of modern forces. It is easy to deploy, easy to support and is extremely cost effective. In addition to reinforcing our prime contractor position in the UK, this contract will help our export plans for Starstreak, which are already well underway with interest being shown by a number of friendly countries.

"Starstreak is at the beginning of its life cycle and with an in-service life with the British Army extending to 2020 and beyond, I expect SMS to be supplying missiles, systems and future enhancements for many years to come."

Recent demonstration firings of Starstreak carried out in the UK for several potential overseas customers have once again proven the exceptional capability of the high velocity, laser beam riding, Starstreak missile system not only against air targets, but also ground targets. In service in the UK in the ground-to-air role, Starstreak has recently shown its superb capabilities in trials in the United States for the US Army as an air-to-air missile system on the Apache helicopter. Shorts Missile Systems is a world leader in the design and manufacture of close air defence systems and its products have found great success in service with 56 armed forces around the world. The company is the UK's prime contractor in Very Short Range Air Defence Systems and employs over 550 people based in Belfast and Paris. SMS is a joint venture company between Short Brothers plc, a subsidiary of Bombardier Inc, and Thomson-CSF, the defence electronics corporation.