BAE Systems

12 The Aircraft of British Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS 1977 - 2017

Military developments –

Typhoon enters production

In 1995 British Aerospace signed an

agreement with Saab to form Saab-BAe

Gripen AB which lasted for 15 years. It

was a joint marketing, support and

manufacturing agreement for an export

variant of the Saab JAS39 Gripen.

Even though BAe’s factories lost

much of their civil aircraft work in the

mid-1990s these losses were leavened

in July 1996 when BAe won the

contract to replace the Nimrod MR

with the MRA4. When production of the

Harrier and Tornado ended in 1998,

there were upgrade programmes on

them at Warton, along with Typhoon,

which had finally entered production.

More mergers - Matra-BAe

Dynamics - MBDA

In 1996 BAe and Matra missiles formed

Matra-BAe Dynamics and this became

the largest missile manufacturer in

Europe with the aim of matching US

missile makers, Hughes and Raytheon.

This was but the first step in a major

realignment of BAe’s Dynamics Division.

It later merged with EADS, GEC and

Alenia to form MBDA. BAE Systems and

Airbus Space and Defence each have

holdings of 37.5% and Leonardo 25%.

BAE SYSTEMS from

1999 onwards

British Aerospace becomes

BAE SYSTEMS

In the late 1990s BAe began merger

talks with Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace

(later DASA) with which they were

already partners on the Tornado and

Typhoon. This merger would have

provided the merged grouping a 58%

share of Airbus, putting the French into

a minority position on the grouping.

This merger came very close to fruition

but at the last moment BAe bought

Avro RJX85 prototype took place in

April 2001 and it was soon joined by a

second aircraft but on 27 November

2001, BAE stated that due to a

downturn in the market following 9/

the Regional Jet business was no longer

viable and so production of the RJ

ended and the RJX was cancelled. This

reduced BAE’s civil airliner business to

just profitable Airbus.

New Aircraft Carrier contract

In February 2003 BAE won a contract to

share the production of the Navy’s two

mighty new aircraft carriers with the

French multinational Thales, but with

the work to be carried out entirely in

British shipyards. These would be the

largest British warships ever built and

were designed to carry 40 offensive

aircraft including helicopters. BAE’s

relationship with the MoD was at a low

ebb at the time owing to both the new

‘Astute’ class nuclear submarine and

Nimrod MRA4 contracts being much

over budget and behind schedule.

However by 2009 BAE had secured a

British-based GEC-Marconi. Attempts to

make a tripartite tie up of BAe,

GEC-Marconi and DASA failed as DASA

only wanted a bilateral merger. BAe’s

action drove DASA into the arms of

Aérospatiale-Matra of France and CASA

of Spain to form EADS a year later – the

third largest defence supplier in the

world after Lockheed Martin and

Boeing.

On completion of its merger BAe

renamed itself BAE SYSTEMS to reflect

more accurately the new company’s

portfolio. In taking over GEC-Marconi

the shipbuilder VSEL at Barrow became

part of its portfolio and it also gained a

foothold in the USA.

BAE ends British-built

airliner production

On 21 March 2000 BAE SYSTEMS, had

launched the Avro RJX, a limited

re-engined development of the RJ. BAE

would only invest heavily in new civil

major projects with Airbus - that was

the product to invest in, take the risk

and get the return. The first flight of the

‡ BAE SYSTEMS

Land (UK)

manufactured the

Challenger 2 tanks

which serve with

the British and

Omani Army. The

British Army’s

Challengers will

shortly undergo a

Life Extension

Programme.

(BAE SYSTEMS)

The first two Eurofighter Typhoons delivered to the Royal Saudi

Air Force, registered as 1001 and 1002. They are still carrying UK

military serials ZK060 and ZK061. (BAE SYSTEMS)