A contract to supply 72 Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia was agreed in 2007 for a mooted £4.4 billion. It was then the subject of tortuous negotiations as BAE tried for a higher price; these were concluded to everyone’s satisfaction in 2014.
On top of this BAE has a vital rolling contract with the Saudis for support and maintenance on the earlier Tornado and Hawk aircraft it supplied that comes up for review at the end of this year.
Discussions on this, part of the next five-year Saudi British defence co-operation programme, are progressing and it will almost certainly be extended for another five years. Evidence suggests a value of £5 billion on the programme.
The company gets about a fifth of revenues from the