MAJOR Hampshire employer GE Aviation has moved to emphasise there are no jobs at risk in the region if defence chiefs do axe the Future Lynx helicopter project.

Formerly known as Smiths Aviation until a £2.4 billion deal last year saw it bought up by America's General Electric, only a handful of the engineering firm's 1,000 Hampshire staff are involved in the project.

A small electronics facility at Eastleigh carries out work on the Lynx, pictured, rather than the major site at Hamble.

The company was awarded an £11.5m contract from the Ministry of Defence to install cockpit equipment, including a voice and data recorder, on 70 of the Future Lynx aircraft.

There is a £1 billion project to provide the next generation of battlefield helicopter for the Army with Italian-owned Augusta Westland. Essentially it is a faster, more capable version of the existing Lynx helicopter that has been in service since the 1970s.

Like a number of other major military projects, including plans for two aircraft carriers that will create hundreds of Hampshire jobs, a cash squeeze at the MoD is putting its future under threat.

A GE Aviation spokesman said: "The Future Lynx work by GE Aviation is performed at the company's Eastleigh facility rather than the Hamble facility. About 15 of the 100 employees at the Eastleigh facility work on the Future Lynx. No positions would be under threat at GE if the program was cut. The program is still under review