LANCASHIRE based aerospace engineers BAE Systems hope a new order of Typhoon fighter jets will drive another year of growth.

This comes after the Samlesbury manufacturer reported higher sales for the last year despite the coronavirus pandemic.

BAE Systems, which supplies the British, American and Saudi Arabian militaries, said it delivered a 2 per cent increase in earnings per share for the past year and that sales to £20.86 billion in 2020, up from £20.11 billion in the previous full year.

Chief executive Charles Woodburn said: “Thanks to the outstanding efforts of our employees and close cooperation with our customers, suppliers and trades unions, we have delivered a strong set of results against a challenging backdrop of the global pandemic.

“Throughout 2020 we focused on keeping our people safe and supporting our communities, whilst continuing to deliver for our customers.

“In 2021 we will continue to drive operational performance, progress our sustainability agenda and invest in high-end discriminating technologies to meet our customers’ priorities, which will ensure we are well positioned to grow the business and contribute to the economic prosperity of the countries in which we operate.”

The company says it shrugged off the impact of the pandemic, although some products it sells to commercial sectors such as aviation, cyber and transport saw a fall in demand.

However, it said this this was largely offset by positive trading in its electronic systems, fighter jet and combat shipbuilding units.

Sale of the Typhoon jets has proved controversial however, with many of them sold to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has been intervening in the Yemeni Civil War since 2015, carrying out around 20,000 airstrikes in that time a third of which were against non-military targets including schools, hospitals and factories.

The United States has paused arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the start of this year, however the UK has not followed suit with industry experts believing that the manufacture of Typhoon fighter jets would no longer be financially viable without Saudi customers.

As things stand however, BAE has told investors that it expects a rise in earnings of between three per cent and five per cent over the course of 2021.

The company added that it expects two acquisitions in its electronic systems business from last year to help boost its performance in the current year.