Raytheon Broughton RAF Shadow upgrade passes critical design review

Raytheon UK has passed a critical design review on a £110m contract awarded by the Ministry of Defence in 2021 to upgrade the Royal Air Force Shadow aircraft fleet.

The review is an essential part of the programme to expand and upgrade the aircraft fleet, and Raytheon UK is on schedule and budget to deliver the first three upgraded aircraft back to the RAF in 2024.

The contract has helped secure 150 highly skilled jobs at Raytheon UK’s Broughton facility and hundreds of jobs throughout the business’s supply chain in Wales and elsewhere in Great Britain.

Raytheon UK has announced that it will be procuring a UK-based full-flight simulator on behalf of the Royal Air Force for training on the aircraft.

This will support crews in their training and ensure that they do not have to travel long distances to receive such training, saving time and also learning in an efficient, sustainable manner.

“The MOD’s £110m investment in Raytheon UK’s plant in [Broughton] North Wales is providing the RAF with one of the world’s most modern and capable intelligence gathering assets with which they can continue to defend the UK and its allies,” said UK Minister for Defence Procurement, Alex Chalk, during a visit to Broughton to mark the milestone. ”

“UK Defence has longstanding and deep links with the aviation sector in North Wales, and it was really rewarding to hear from the apprentices and other Raytheon UK staff about the importance of this work to them, their families, and to the local economy,” he added.

The programme has also helped secure high-skilled jobs in Wales and strengthened the partnership with Welsh companies.

The announcement by Raytheon UK was welcomed by Air Commodore Alex Hicks, Senior Responsible Owner for Shadow, who said: “The provision of a new synthetic training facility represents a further enhancement to the Programme of Record that will deliver an exceptionally capable ISR asset to Defence.

“This is an exciting time for the programme as we prepare to accept delivery of our first Shadow Mk2 aircraft in 2024”.

Overall, the Shadow Aircraft Upgrade programme has provided a boost to the UK’s industrial resilience, securing high-skilled jobs, and contributing to the development of a sovereign UK capability for the armed forces.

The new upgrades will deliver an exceptionally capable intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) asset to Defence, further enhancing the UK’s defence capabilities.