DEFENCE giant BAE Systems has received a five-year, £446 million contract to provide a range of engineering support services for the fleet of Typhoon jets, an order that will help to sustain around 600 jobs at its Warton and Samlesbury sites.

Martin Taylor, BAE Systems' combat air support director, said: "This contract is great news for BAE Systems and for the Eurofighter programme as a whole.

"Over a five-year period the contract will deliver significant savings to the customer and will ensure that we have the skills, capabilities and funding in place to support Typhoon users across Europe."

BAE bosses said there would be 'no impact' on redundancies as a result of the deal.

Earlier this month, around 2,000 shop-floor workers voted to take a day’s unpaid holiday every month to avoid 150 compulsory redundancies.

BAE also said about 1,000 jobs had been ‘mitigated’ or saved from compulsory redundancy out of 1,387.

Ian Waddell, national officer of the Unite union, said: "This welcome news will bring some relief to the highly skilled workers at BAE's Warton and Samlesbury sites. They have been under huge pressure after the company announced 3,000 redundancies in military aircraft production last year.

"It demonstrates that governments can provide the clarity of funding which allows companies like BAE Systems to plan effectively and therefore safeguard jobs.

"Engineers are in desperately short supply and this announcement means these critical staff are assured a secure future with BAE Systems, which is also good news for the UK economy."

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: “I am delighted that around 600 jobs will be sustained on account of this contract.

"BAE Systems provides world class engineering and it is good to hear that they will continue to apply that to the Typhoon project."