Huh....why will Pakistan even feature in this topic? Lol. never crossed my mind as to why.
Anyway, BAE has doing huge business around the word(only Lockheed Martin is bigger), they have their tentacles in basically all corners of the globe. Granted they are a true british success story and their military products/equipment/electronic and software technology is word class and matched by only a select few. However , seems to me that they have grown too big an dominant. It's like a state in itself
BAE Systems has drummed up hopes that it will land further foreign orders for is typhoon jet Fighters.
An RAF Typhoon fighter, which is produced by BAE Systems CREDIT: JULIAN SIMMONDS
Alan Tovey, industry editor
6 OCTOBER 2016 • 1:26PM
The FTSE 100 defence group used a trading update to say that its efforts to sell the jets will continue to be supported by the government” and that talks with “potential and existing operators of Typhoons continue to support the group’s expectations for additional contracts”.
However, it cautioned that there can be “no certainty as to the timing of the orders”.
The news did little to bolster the market’s view towards the company with the shares edging up only 0.2pc in mid-morning.
The Government has swung behind defence exports, with the 2015 Security and Defence Strategic Review backing a “so-called” prosperity agenda that recognises the importance of the forces supporting efforts to sell UK-made weapons abroad.
Lobbying from the industry for soldiers, sailors and pilots who actually use the systems to be involved in the selling process to potential buyers has been successful and is now part of this.
Further support could be in the future with the Government’s Committee on Arms Exports Controls in July launching an inquiry into the state’s role in backing Britain's £24bn a year arms industry, which exports about £8bn of weapons a year on average.
BAE also said it was working with Whitehall and Saudi Arabia to nail down the terms of a further five-year deal to support the Gulf nation’s military that is worth billions.
In the US the company said the outlook “remains positive” for defence spending.
Back home, on Wednesday BAE officially began work on the first of the Successor submarines replace the current Trident missile vessels, a potential £41bn deal which will run for decades.
The company also used the update to say work was “progressing” on the new Type 26 frigates for the Navy, though some defence sources have questioned how advanced this is, with expectations that construction work should have started by now.
There have been claims from some MPs – mainly in Soctland, where the ships will be built - that budgetary pressure at Ministry of Defence mean it is delaying the work. Originally 13 of these “global combat ships were planned” but the number has been cut to eight, but there is an option to build five cheaper, stripped down versions.
The Type 26 'global combat ship' is hoped to find foreign buyers CREDIT: BAE/MOD
Type 26s are set to be part of the drive for foreign defence sales but some suggest work on designing them to be exportable and affordable for other countries is being affected by the delays, creating a headache for BAE moving the project ahead.
The company added that the contracts to build the fourth and fifth Offshore Patrol Vessels for the Navy is in the process of being finalised. These lightweight ships are also crucial to keeping BAE’s shipbuilding skills alive, rather than facing the prospect of laying off staff if work dries up and then beginning the expensive and time-consuming process of recreating skills which have been lost.
Still in the UK, BAE also noted it had signed a 10-year deal worth £2.1bn to support the RAF’s fleet of Typhoons.
In the update BAE reiterated it’s guidance for the fill year, predicting underlying earnings per share will rise by between 5pc and 10pc to 40.2p.
Analysts at Investec called the update “supportive” of their positive view of BAE, and upgraded the target price by 30p to 580p.
Sandy Morris, analyst at Jefferies, noted that the update highlighted BAE’s guidance assumed a sterling dollar exchange rate average of $1.45 to £1, improving earnings per share by 0.7p.
With the pound having hit 30-year lows recently, he added that BAE could almost hit the lower end of its guidance solely from positive foreign exchange. If BAE did not do better, it would indicate a lack of operational improvement in the business.
“The $1.45 figure might have made sense when BAE provided guidance back in February, but it’s not likely to be that,” Mr Morris said.
Independent defence analyst described the announcement as “a sound, straightforward and positive statement with no surprises”. He added that “export potential for the Typhoon remains excellent and it is also good to see that the May government is clearly now prioritising defence.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...al-for-typhoon-export-sales-as-it-holds-grow/
Why is the government/MOD delaying the building of our 8 type 26 frigates? This project should have started by now.
