THOUSANDS of Lancashire aerospace jobs were set to be secured today with the crucial signing of the Eurofighter production investment agreement.

Workers at the British Aerospace sites at Samlesbury and Warton in the county were celebrating as Defence Secretary George Robertson flew to Bonn to sign the legally binding agreement with his counterparts from Germany, Italy and Spain.

Production investment contracts will then be signed between the four-company consortium developing the aircraft and the Nato agency coordinating the project.

Britain has a 38 per cent stake in the project, which will provide up to 40,000 jobs at peak production, through British Aerospace. Its Samlesbury and Warton sites in Lancashire, which employ 12,000 people, will be heavily involved in production and assembly.

And dozens of supply firms in the county will benefit from the multi-billion dollar contract.

Production is expected to get under way by the beginning of 1999 and could run for 20 years if export interest proves to be strong.

The £40 billion project had been threatened by a series of German delays in finding funds to move to full production, with Germany's finance and defence ministries at loggerheads over how to pay for the aircraft.

The breakthrough came in October when the German Cabinet finally approved plans to buy 180 Eurofighters.

Britain is proposing to buy 232 Eurofighters for the RAF, while Italy plans for 130 and Spain 87.

Only the much more expensive American F-22 Raptor will be able to outmanoeuvre the Eurofighter in the next generation of aircraft.

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