£93m missiles deal to boost expansion at Belfast Thales plant

head of the Belfast base for arms manufacturer Thales UK has said a new £93m missile contract with the MoD will contribute to its continued growth and expansion.

Philip McBride said the Future Air Defence Availability Project (F-ADAPT), awarded during yesterday’s site visit by MoD Minister Stuart Andrew, would help retain more than 100 jobs at the air operations and weapons plant in east Belfast.

The MoD has said the deal will both modernise and boost the British Army and Royal Marines’ very short-range air defence capability. The upgrades include thermal imaging to enable the missile systems to be used 24 hours a day and ‘friend or foe’ identification, which will “maximise intelligence on potential threats and targets”.

Mr Bride said business at the Belfast Thales operation, which employs around 530 people, was “buoyant”.

However, he said the defence contractor has been in significant and constant discussions with suppliers to ensure that work will not stop on its shop floor when Brexit is triggered at the end of March next year.

“What we’re asking our supply base to do is to ensure that come the end of March next year, there are no hiccups in the supply to us, that they’ve kept enough components and materials that will ensure we have a fairly constant flow,” he said.

“We’re not complacent, we just have to check on that on a very regular basis, to make sure that there’s no stop-work situation come March, but we don’t believe there will be.” Turnover MoD Minister Stuart Andrew (centre) with Victor Chavez and Philip McBride from Thales touring the firm’s plant in Belfast yesterday, where the Starstreak missile (inset) is manufactured

in the Northern Ireland end of Thales’ business has tripled in the past 3.5 years, with new products actively being developed.

The UK remains its biggest market, but Mr McBride predictTHE ed it could soon be overtaken by south east Asia, where the contractor sells arms to Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

He said Thales was also looking more to the US and the Middle East, with one of the new products currently under development in Belfast having significant potential.

“We’re working under a small contract at the moment in the US for a brand new product which could be a real game changer for this business,” he said.

“We’re opening markets that we’ve never been in before and we see huge growth potential.”

However, he said that the substantial growth at Thales in Belfast means the traditional supply of skilled graduates from Queen’s and Ulster University may not be enough in future.

“The ability for us to draw simply from Queen’s and UU is going to be problematic. But it’s not just in those higher level skills that we see issues.

“There are issues throughout the entire workforce, from high quality machinists, people who can programme machines themselves. We’re finding there’s a dearth of those people now.”

MoD Minister Mr Andrew said the contract was “good news” for Belfast.

“What we are trying to demonstrate is the importance of defence industries and the supply chain throughout the United Kingdom in supplying and providing prosperity for every single part of the UK,” he said.

“In these uncertain times, it is crucial we protect ourselves from the rapidly evolving spectrum of global threats.

“These cutting-edge missile systems will fortify our military advantage over adversaries and help protect UK Armed Forces across the world and into the next decade.”

Confirmation: Susan Fitzgerald