It is encouraging that at least one of our battered defence contractors is back on recovery course, after more bad news already this year from Cobham. Chemring, which makes defence countermeasures such as sensors to detect improvised explosive devices and biological agents and chaff to protect aircraft, had a rotten first half of its financial year.
The main problem was with a two-year contract, worth £100 million or more, to provide rifle-launched grenades to an unnamed Middle East nation, generally reckoned to be Saudi Arabia. There was the occasional production problem too.
Chemring was forced to raise almost £81 million at the start of last year by means of a rights issue to pay down debt, while delays on that ammunition contract pushed deliveries into