At BAE Systems, we design, build and maintain defence and security solutions to protect the UK against current and future threats. Working in partnership with communities and companies across our supply chain, we underpin a resilient defence industrial base that is critical to supporting our armed forces and ensuring national security.
To help our customers stay ahead of evolving threats across land, sea, air, cyber and space, BAE Systems relies on a highly skilled workforce of 45,700 people across the UK, including approximately 2,300 apprentices and graduates who are on track to join us this year.
Our operations span the country, from shipbuilding in Glasgow and our advanced submarines programme in Barrow-in-Furness, to munitions productions in Monmouthshire and delivery of the UK’s combat air capability from our sites at Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire.
Beyond our engineering and manufacturing sites, we also employ thousands of digital, cyber and intelligence experts who work with customers in the armed forces, law enforcement, national security and central government.
With a proud heritage in supporting the UK’s defence and security we are also custodians of critical national capabilities, in particular the ability to build advanced sovereign combat aircraft. To protect this industrial know-how and the vital advantage it provides, we invested £230m in skills, training, education outreach and university partnerships in 2023.
More widely, our investment in jobs, growth and communities delivers significant social value and a positive local impact. Just one example is our submarines site in Barrow, which employs over 12,000 people, with plans to recruit 5,000 more to deliver the Dreadnought and Aukus programmes. By working in partnership with Team Barrow, our aim is for this growth to drive investment in local infrastructure, education and healthcare.
Beyond the UK’s borders, BAE Systems plays a leading industrial role in strategic defence alliances, including Aukus, the trilateral security and defence partnership between the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States; and the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), led by the UK, Japan and Italy.
These generational programmes are fostering new collaborations between nations and businesses, and will deliver significant economic value in the UK. GCAP will build on the economic and industrial benefits still being delivered by the Eurofighter Typhoon programme, which has contributed more than £30bn to the UK economy through exports of the aircraft — more than double the initial government investment.
Over its lifecycle, GCAP is expected to deliver £37bn to the UK’s economy, even before the significant economic value of exports, with its UK industry partners investing £800m in technology and skills.
At BAE Systems, we are working to develop the next generation of defence and security capabilities that the UK needs to contribute to regional and global security, deter aggression and maintain the country’s interests internationally. As a key part of one of the nation’s most strategically important industrial sectors, we also make a significant economic and social impact, providing long-term jobs in the communities where we work, building the skills of our future workforce and helping our nation prosper.
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