A CONSORTIUM featuring south coast defence firm Cobham has been chosen as preferred bidder on the £13 billion RAF Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft programme.
Defence procurement minister Lord Bach is to make the long-awaited announcement today, which will see the European consortium trump US giant Boeing.
Dorset based Cobham employs 520 people at its factory in Titchfield, near Fareham, one of three of its facilities that will now be supplying air refuelling equipment to the project.
The company, which holds a 20 per cent equity stake in the AirTanker consortium, estimates that the initial phase of the contract alone will generate £110m of subcontracts.
The 27-year project is comfortably the largest defence initiative of its type ever undertaken by the Ministry of Defence.
The AirTanker consortium will now replace the RAF's VC10 air refuelling tankers to enhance Britain's long distance air capability with Airbus A330s.
During peacetime the aircraft will be deployed in commercial activity, painted in the livery of whichever airline is leasing them, only being painted grey and converted for military refuelling capability when needed by the RAF.
Allan Cook, chief executive of Cobham, said: "This decision for AirTanker clearly demonstrates Cobham's ability to participate in and add value to the winning consortium."
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