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Bloomberg
Airbus SE upped the ante in its bid to win a helicopter order from Britain’s Royal Air Force, promising to build all military versions of the H175M model it’s pitching at a new plant in the UK.
The assembly line will be installed next to Airbus’s jetliner wing factory in Broughton, Wales, if it’s selected to replace a fleet of 23 Puma choppers, Colin James, who leads the
UK helicopter unit, said in an interview.
He said the site will fulfill all global exports, going beyond earlier pledges.
The offer of hundreds of UK jobs at Airbus and its suppliers bolsters the Toulouse, France-based firm in a competition with Leonardo SpA, whose AW149 model would be made at Britain’s only helicopter factory in Yeovil, England.
James, speaking at the DSEI defense-industry expo in London, held out prospects for the rehiring of former Airbus staff at Broughton who lost their jobs as demand for passenger aircraft was hit by the coronavirus pandemic.