BRITISH Aerospace played host to recently-appointed Minister of State for Procurement, Baroness Symons.

The VIP came to see the Eurofighter, 232 of which Britain has agreed to buy, she even sat in a DA4 prototype, after touring BAe's Warton site.

The Baroness emphasised that the Eurofighter would not be sold to countries for internal or external aggression, following the suspension of Hawk sales to Indonesia.

She said: "It's great to actually come to the place and see what's happening and to see in the flesh, or rather metal, the aircraft itself.

"It is important to visit the projects when you spend a lot of money on defence, which we do in the UK.

"The Eurofighter is back on track after some problems among the four nations involved and we are making sure the British defence industry is supporting a lot of jobs and attracting wealth. "We are committed to a healthy defence industry and we are checking every overseas sale very stringently."

Steve Mogford, managing director of BAe's Military Aircraft and Airframes division, was delighted to meet the Baroness.

He said: "It is good to see Baroness Symons giving the project her support and I'm delighted that she's chosen to come and visit us so early in her new post. I believe we are her first industrial visit.

"She has shown great interest in the activity here and in Eurofighter. Production on the Eurofighter has started and there is a lot of activity down South. We are on schedule with the project.

"Final assembly will start here early next year so the number of jobs are being stepped up on the Eurofighter project.

"We are taking staff from other projects which have finished and are retraining them, so we are bettering skills within the company and the area."

A total of 620 firm orders have been made from the Eurofighter's four partner nations and interest is being shown by Australia, Singapore, Norway and Greece.

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