Rolls-Royce Will Support Fleet Through 2024
The British Ministry of Defence (MoD) has signed a contract with Rolls-Royce, valued at £346.7 million (€377 million) to provide maintenance support for the EJ200 engine, which powers the Royal Air Force (RAF) TYPHOON fleet, until 2024.
So far this year, RAF TYPHOONs have led the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria in Operation Shader, have undertaken Baltic Air Policing missions with NATO partners to deter Russian incursions of Baltic airspace (with 14 Quick Reaction Alerts to intercept Russian aircraft having been conducted since 3 May) and will take part in further NATO policing missions from Iceland later this year.
The contract secures 175 jobs across the UK, according to an MoD statement – in Bristol and at RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Coningsby, which are the main operational bases for the TYPHOON force, along with the Falkland Islands and Amari Air Base in Estonia.
Rolls-Royce will repair and maintain the TYPHOON engines as required by the RAF over the five-year period. They will also be responsible for the provision of modules, spares and accessories to support the fleet, including transport of equipment between RAF bases and the Rolls Royce manufacturing facility in Bristol.
The TYPHOON fleet has benefited from a £425 million upgrade programme over the last three years. The aircraft now have the STORM SHADOW deep-strike cruise missile, METEOR air-to-air missile and BRIMSTONE precision attack missile at their disposal. The RAF has also commenced trials of BriteCloud on TYPHOON – a missile decoy system to protect aircraft from the latest radar-guided threats.
