BAE’s £2.1bn shortfall

Defence firm BAE Systems has a £2.1bn black hole in its pension funds.

Bosses revealed the deficit last night following a review, and said they expect to be paying down the funding gap until 2026.

About 200,000 current and ex-workers are signed up to Bae’s nine UK pension schemes. It has 35,000 staff in the UK developing warships, fighter planes and cyber security technology.

next year BAE said it would pay £220m to help bring the deficit down – a £15m increase on current annual payments.

Contributions will then increase in line with growth in its dividend payments. But it is expected they will fall by £50m in 2022, before ending in 2026.