A Gloucestershire-based firm have captured a key contract with the Australian military.

Pennant International Group PLC have announced two new contract wins to the London Stock Exchange on the same day as they released a trading update ahead of releasing its annual report.

Based at Staverton Technology Park, Pennant provide training and support solutions for the defence and regulated civilian sectors.

And the latest deal wins are from each of those two sectors.

The company's wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, Pennant Australasia Ltd has won a contract to supply Pennant training aids for aviation technician training for the Australian Defence Force.

The Pennant training aids will be used at the Australian Defence Force at a new training facility in Nowra, 130 miles south of Sydney in southern New South Wales.

In a statement, Pennant said: "The contract has been awarded by Air Affairs Australia Pty Limited, and is Pennant's second contract in region for training aids.

"The support services element forms part of the Group's long term strategy to generate an increasing proportion of its revenues from services, particularly services which are both complementary to its product range and relevant to the sectors within which it already operates.

"The contract is to be delivered over 2020 and 2021 (as an initial phase). The contract value is commercially confidential."

Pennant have also announced a new order - worth around £1.5million to provide additional training aids to the Middle East.

The statement added: "The order includes two new training solutions, including a 'crew escape trainer', which have been created under the Group's product development strategy and will form part of the Group's range of generic training aids.

"The contract is 'engineered-to-order' and the majority of revenues will be recognised in 2020 (being supportive of current market expectations).

"The Group anticipates receiving further orders from this long-standing customer during the year."

On the same day, Pennant revealed that they are set to release their financial report for the year to December 31, 2019 on March 23.

Ahead of that release, the AIM-quoted firm issued a trading update to the Stock Exchange that revealed they are expecting revenues to be in the range of £20million for the year.

The two contract wins, plus the recent announcement of the purchase of the Absolute Data Group have strengthened the firm's offering in target markets in North America and Australasia.

The trading update said: "The company's order book is currently standing at £33million, all of which is scheduled for delivery over the next three years.

"Pennant is actively considering other strategic opportunities to partner with or acquire complementary businesses and will continue to invest in developing its product range and its ability to deliver complementary services.

"With a contracted order book of £33 million scheduled for delivery over the next three years, together with a sizeable pipeline of single-source opportunities, the Board remains confident of future prospects and of building and delivering long-term shareholder value."