5 key facts on UK-US Aerospace Exports and Collaboration #ExportingisGREAT

With President Obama making perhaps his final trip to the UK as US President over the next few days, and with it being ‘Exporting is Great’ week here in the UK, we thought we would look at 5 key facts on UK-US Aerospace and Defence exports and collaboration….

1. Behind the EU, North America is the second largest export region for UK Aerospace – Aerospace exports to N. America were valued at £6.3bn in 2015 (with nearly £300m exported on aircraft seats alone!) and represented 22% of all UK Aerospace exports. Around 80% of exports to N. America were destined specifically for the US.

2. The UK has the largest amount of active Boeing suppliers in Europe – 40% of Boeing’s European supply chain is located directly in the UK, with Boeing spending £1.4bn with those suppliers in 2015. The UK also supplies part and components for every single Boeing commercial aircraft platform currently under production.

3. The UK ships wings, fuselages and winglets directly to the US – Airbus in Broughton, North Wales ships assembled A320 wings to Airbus’ new 40,000 sq-ft final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama; Bombardier ships complete fuselage sections from Belfast to Kansas for their Learjet 70 and the Learjet 75 business jets; and GKN ships advanced technology winglets for the 737MAX fro the Isle of Wight to its $38m Orangeburg facility, for final assembly.

4. Surrey Satellite Technology has had its US headquarters in Colorado since 2008 – the company set up its US HQ in order to address opportunities in the growing US market, and works hand-in-hand with UK operations, with cleanroom space for satellite and subsystem manufacture, customer payload integration, and electronics assembly activities.

5. Around 500 suppliers across the UK contribute to the production of the F-35 programme – With the UK responsible for manufacturing 15% by value of each and every F-35 aircraft, the UK supplies critical parts and components from across the country. Ranging from the aft fuselage in Lancashire, the development and integration of the lift fan system in Bristol, high density circuit boards made in Tewkesbury, and the ejection seat produced in Buckinghamshire, the UK government estimates that £5 billion of contracted work has already been placed with the UK supply chain as a result of the F-35 programme.