A £165 MILLION contract has been signed to provide upgrades to the one of the RAF’s most advanced fighter jets, securing 1,500 jobs in East Lancashire.

The new deal, signed at defence exhibition IDEX 2015 in Abu Dhabi, will give £72 million of orders to BAE Systems for improvements to the Eurofighter Typhoon, which is partly built at its base in Samlesbury.

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The move will secure 1,500 jobs in the Combat Air Unit, based at Samlesbury, which already manufactures parts for the plane.

Under what is known as the Phase Three Enhancements Package (P3E), the contract will see the jet receive upgrades including improvements to the maintenance and mission systems and the integration of the Brimstone Two precision missile.

The announcement follows a feasibility study and trial installation commissioned by the Ministry of Defence and carried out by BAE Systems in 2014.

Martin Taylor, combat air managing director for BAE Systems, said: “By any measure, the number of capability enhancements put in place for Typhoon in the past 12 months has been phenomenal, with Meteor, Storm Shadow, Captor E-scan radar and now Brimstone.

“P3E represents another exciting chapter in the development journey for Typhoon.”

Chiefs say the new upgrade, with the integration of the Brimstone Two, opens up the air-to-surface capability of the aircraft to cope with a wide variety of targets, including fast moving vehicles.

Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans said: “BAE Systems is one of the most important employers in Lancashire and is the largest single employer in the Ribble Valley constituency.

“The success of BAE Systems is vital to the economic success of the Ribble Valley and of Lancashire and I welcome this announcement.

“I am committed to promoting and championing the important work of BAE Systems in Lancashire, which serves as a centre of world-class high tech engineering and provides thousands of jobs for the Ribble Valley and Lancashire.’ The contract comes after the return of an iconic English Electric Lightning fighter to the aerodrome from which it originally took off for a historic flight nearly 60 years ago.

A fibreglass full-scale replica of the aircraft has been erected at the gate of BAE Systems in Samlesbury.

The first Lightning took to the skies over the aerodrome in November 1959 and the site now houses advanced manufacturing facilities making parts for some of the world’s leading aircraft programmes.

It was the first completely British designed and built fighter aircraft able to fly at twice the speed of sound.

The replica takes the place of the previous Lightning aircraft which was removed in 2013, having stood at the side of the A59 for nearly two decades.

The English Electric Lightning was designed, developed, and manufactured by English Electric, who were subsequently absorbed by the newly-formed British Aircraft Corporation. It was then marketed as the BAC Lightning.

It was used by the RAF and the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF). Although it was the RAF’s primary interceptor for more than two decades it never needed to attack another aircraft.