HAMPSHIRE defence company Chemring is celebrating £21.6m worth of contract wins at two of its American subsidiaries.

The firm, which employs 800 people at sites in Portsmouth, Salisbury and Derby as well as the Whiteley HQ, specialises in making chaff to confuse missiles and stop them locking on to their targets.

Chemring's US countermeasures businesses, Alloy Surfaces, based in Philadelphia, and Kilgore Flares, based in Tennessee have both sealed deals with different arms of the American military.

Kilgore has secured £11.6m of contract options, the maximum available in the second year of its four year contract with the US Department of Defence for missile countermeasures.

Alloy Surfaces has received £6.8m of orders from the US Navy for its special material infra-red decoys, for delivery over this calendar year and the first half of 2006. The UK Ministry of Defence has also exercised a £3.1m contract option for the supply of decoys to protect Tornado and Harrier aircraft.

Dr David Price, newly-appointed chief executive of Chemring, commented: "The order book for our US countermeasures division now stands at a record $136 million, and the receipt of these new orders will underpin the performance of this division during 2005 and provide a strong start to 2006."