Some good news. The government of Saudi Arabia has ordered 22 Hawk Advanced Jet Trainers as part of a package of training equipment which includes 55 Pilatus PC21 basic training aircraft. The Hawks will be delivered in 2016.
This will reduce the number of redundancies previously announced at the factories at Warton, near Preston, and at Brough, near Hull. There was discussion about work being moved from Brough to Warton, whether this order will affect that isn’t known. Although the Daily Telegraph reported that the bulk of the work will take place at Warton and only 200 jobs at Brough will be saved out of 850. This seems to imply that some work will move.
The orders from the Government of Saudi Arabia have been a boon to the UK aircraft industry, the locality and the UK balance of payments since the early 1960’s when Lightning fighters were supplied. This was followed by Tornado and more recently by Typhoon.