Orders worth tens of millions of pounds are set to be won by Shipley firm Filtronic Components for electronic warfare equipment to be used in the Eurofighter, pictured.

Early versions of electronic defence equipment, worth up to £200,000 per plane, are being produced at the firm's Baildon factory and will be fitted to 620 of the jets over the next ten years.

The firm, part of the Filtronic Plc group, has been developing the products, called defence-aid suites, for £20 million Eurofighter jets for ten years and sees the programme as its flagship contract.

The equipment is part of the fighter jet's radar system. In warfare, it enables the Eurofighter to confuse an enemy pilot into thinking it is somewhere else. The effect is that the enemy plane misdirects its missiles.

The firm, which employs 220 in Baildon and 50 at Milton Keynes, will be putting 80 current staff on the Eurofighter project when it goes into full production.

The news follows a Government decision to plough £1.5 billion into the development of missiles for the Eurofighter, announced yesterday by Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

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