Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on March 2, 2026
1 min readLast updated: April 2, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleBritain has awarded a £1 billion contract to Leonardo for 23 AW149 military helicopters to be built at its Yeovil plant, safeguarding ~3,300 jobs and boosting the UK supply chain with over 40 % of work onshore and export opportunities.
LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Britain on Monday awarded a 1 billion pound ($1.35 billion)contract to Italian defence contractor Leonardo to build a new fleet of military helicopters, securing 3,300 jobs at the company's manufacturing site in Yeovil, southwest England.
Leonardo will provide British armed forces with 23 new medium-lift helicopters to work alongside uncrewed aircraft, the government said.
It also paved the way for future international orders to be built in Britain, with more than 40% of the work set to be carried out in Yeovil, it said.
Leonardo had warned that it could lose Britain's last military helicopter manufacturing site if it did not secure the order.
Defence Secretary John Healey said the contract strengthened Britain's armed forces, secured thousands of jobs and set up big opportunities for exports.
($1 = 0.7416 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
The UK awarded Leonardo a contract worth 1 billion pounds ($1.35 billion) to build new military helicopters.
The contract secures 3,300 jobs at Leonardo's Yeovil manufacturing site in southwest England.
Leonardo will provide 23 new medium-lift helicopters to the British armed forces.
More than 40% of the contract work will be undertaken at Leonardo's Yeovil site.
The contract paves the way for future international orders to be built in Britain, boosting export opportunities.
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