Battered Hampshire defence contractor BAe Systems was given a show of faith by the government after winning two deals worth a combined £80m.

The Farnborough-based group is currently embroiled in a damaging row over cost over-runs on £5 billion-worth of key submarine and aircraft contracts.

Today the Ministry of Defence said it was awarding BAe a £70m deal to provide in-service support for its Joint Force Harrier Fleet.

It is also trusting the group to switch vast banks of information held in paper manuals on to a new Web-based system.

The BAe group will net £10m to supply the armed forces with the trilogi system it hopes will save taxpayers £150m.

The platform will store volumes of logistical, maintenance and operating data allowing access through Web-browsers or stand-alone PCs.

More than £1.5 billion was wiped from BAe Systems' market value last week after its cost warning stunned the City. Ministers blamed BAe for poor management on both the Astute nuclear submarine and Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft contracts. BAe runs hundreds of deals for the MoD and a spokesman said today's awards reflected its past performance on the support services side. Shares in the group were up 0.75p at 117.75p in early trading - compared with a high-point this year of 384p in June.