58
AEROSPACE AND DEFENCE
By Ged Henderson
CREATING A CHAIN REACTION
Change is in the air. Lancashire’s aerospace supply chain is rising to multiple challenges around sustainability and emerging new technologies with both determination and enthusiasm.
That’s the verdict of Paula Gill, chief executive of the North West Aerospace Alliance (NWAA). She declares: “There’s a huge amount of positivity here.”
The changes that the aerospace and defence sectors are undergoing cannot be underestimated. Little wonder it has been declared a new industrial revolution.
Paula says: “We’re seeing an enormous amount of change, around sustainability, around technologies, areas such as advance materials.
“Aerospace is on a sustainability journey. We are being challenging about what we manufacture, how we manufacture and what we manufacture with. Defence is looking at technologies that are going to become part of the product.”
NWAA was formed in 1994 to represent and support the aerospace industry across the North West of England.
It represents approximately 25 per cent of the sector in the UK and like many of its 150-plus member companies, which have a combined turnover of more than £7bn, it is based in Lancashire, in the town of Nelson.
Paula says: “The industry in the region is pretty healthy. We have got a really resilient group of advanced engineers and manufacturers around aerospace and defence.
“They are doing a really good job of building momentum to create the right landscape. The view of change has been taken on really positively.”
Paula points to the large amount of research and development work being carried out across the North West in areas such as advance materials.
Tempest is providing more opportunities. BAE Systems, whose aerospace division
Leonardo UK, MBDA UK, Rolls-Royce and the UK Ministry of Defence.
In Lancashire, BAE Systems supports thousands of local jobs through its work at sites in Samlesbury and Warton, which is also the home of FalconWorks, a new centre for advanced and agile research and technology development.
It was created response to the increasing pace of technological change and evolving threat environment facing BAE System’s military customers around the world.
The aim is to support major programmes such Tempest is a real opportunity, the supply
chain is really excited by it and it will utilise new technologies, creating new opportunities and jobs. It is a huge flag in the ground for Lancashire
employs thousands of Lancashire workers, is to play a key role in the development of the next-generation fighter aircraft backed by the governments of the UK, Italy and Japan.
The three nations have together created the Global Combat Air Programme, and the UK’s work will be undertaken by the existing Team Tempest, which consists of BAE Systems,
as Tempest and also to collaborate with SMEs and academia to deliver rapid concepting of new products and services.
As part of Tempest, the UK’s major combat air industry partners, including BAE Systems, are currently on a mission to create the nation’s first flying combat air demonstrator for a generation, with much of the activity taking
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78
