TELEDYNE Defence & Space is boldly going where no space firm has gone before.

The West Yorkshire-based company has been honoured with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2019 for International Trade.

The company, which used to be Filtronic Defence, is based in Shipley.

The accolade is in recognition of the success of Teledyne’s substantial growth in overseas earnings and commercial success.

It changed its name to include Space in 2016 and the Queens Award reflects its success in this field.

This notably included the award of a $95 million production contract to develop and manufacture critical microwave communication products to support Airbus OneWeb Satellites’ mega constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.

The equipment enables the switching of signals on the satellites providing broadband to countries below which do not have internet access.

“We are delighted to win such a prestigious award which recognises our achievement in core business growth and in recent years gaining a strong position in the space sector, producing significant growth across both UK and international markets,” said Ian Skiggs, Vice President and General Manager of Teledyne Microwave Solutions UK.

“This growth is expected to continue and support our strategic goal towards a sustainable, highly skilled, regional business enterprise recognised as a technology leader in the space sector and support regional investment and jobs across the Yorkshire region”.

Now in its 53rd year, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the country, with winning businesses able to use the esteemed Queens Award emblem for the next five years.

Teledyne Defence & Space is a business unit of Teledyne UK.

Employing 170 people, it is a leader in the design and development of microwave/RF components and subsystems, including channeliser/converters, filters, digital electronic sensors and arrays and other advanced technologies.