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Gloucestershire Business News

Combat vehicles help firm win in tough market

Britain's biggest defence company, which has a major cyber base in Gloucestershire, has seen a rise in half-year earnings.

With 85,800 employees in more than 40 countries the company needs a special interaction 'locations' map on its website to help visitors find its many bases.

But you will find no mention on it of BAE Systems offices at Barnwood, Gloucester, where it has become one of the major firms clustering within easy reach of GCHQ, all with an interest in cyber security.

Which is why we at Punchline are interested in its most recent first-half year earnings, which show improvements in its maritime and combat vehicles operations have helped drive its overall figures upward.

Charles Woodburn, the firm's chief executive officer, said that production of the above - and in particular the combat vehicles - was a number one priority.

"The UK maritime sector is an area where we've seen some particular improvements, electronic systems in the U.S. continues to perform very strongly.

"I said last year that we were having some challenges ramping some of the combat vehicle programmes in the US and whilst we are making progress there that is still a huge area of focus for us."

Profits in the maritime sector rose by 43 per cent to £133 million.

Underlying earnings before tax rose to £999 million from £874 million in the same period last year.

Sales rose from £8.8 billion to £9.4 billion.

An export ban to Saudi Arabia has put a question mark over a multi-million pound deal for 48 Eurofighter Typhoon built by a built by a BAE-led consortium.

Picture credit: Imagery ©2018 Google maps, Map data ©2018 Google

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