BAE Systems has been awarded a contract valued at approximately £135m (US$187.2m) to drive forward the next phase of capability enhancements for the Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role strike aircraft.

The contract forms part of an ongoing commitment by the Eurofighter consortium and UK Spain, Italy and Germany to continue to develop Typhoon’s technology-led capability, increase interoperability with coalition forces and mature technologies for the nations’ future combat air systems.

According to a BAE Systems release issued on August 6 the investment will improve weapons capability, increasing the variety of precision guided munitions, and further enhance Typhoon’s defensive systems and datalinks, improving high-speed secure sharing of data.

Current development work on Typhoon includes the design and exploitation of new large touchscreen cockpit displays, funded by BAE Systems, enabling pilots to assess and respond to increasing volumes of data from the aircraft's sensors and datalinks.

The contract was awarded to BAE Systems by Eurofighter, the consortium which represents the core nations’ industrial partners comprising Airbus, BAE Systems and Leonardo. The Typhoon programme directly employs more than 5,000 at BAE Systems, supporting a further 10,000 jobs across the UK economy.