Leonardo’s Yeovil plant has been awarded a £27 million contract to supply essential spares for the UK’s entire fixed-wing and rotary-wing military aircraft fleet, with the three-year agreement carrying the potential to run for up to seven years and reach a total value of £70 million. The deal, placed by the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group – part of the Ministry of Defence – will sustain 75 jobs across the defence industry and marks a strategic shift in how consumable parts are managed for the armed forces.
Contract details and scope
The Aircraft Consumables Commodities (ACC) contract covers approximately 11,000 catalogue items, ranging from small components such as blind rivets and washers to cable ties and face masks. While individually inexpensive, these “essential spares” are critical to maintaining the operational readiness of the fleet – without them, Typhoon fighter jets, Apache and Chinook helicopters, and A400M and C-17 transport aircraft cannot be kept airworthy. Several of these aircraft types are currently deployed in support of live operations in the Middle East, while Typhoons are also involved in defending NATO airspace, including against the “Russian drone threat”, as Defence Minister Luke Pollard MP noted.
The agreement introduces a significant change in logistics management: instead of supplying individual units directly – a fragmented model that previously meant multiple operating locations managed their own procurement – equipment will now be handled at a depot level. Leonardo will take ownership of the full supply chain, including spares modelling and forecasting, proactive maintenance, stock procurement and obsolescence management. Lisa Thorne, NAD head of support capabilities and commodities, said the contract “provides vital services across multiple air platforms, ensuring operational readiness and enhanced capability for our forces”.
Leonardo’s strategic role and importance
Leonardo UK Ltd, the British subsidiary of the Italian-headquartered defence and aerospace group, is already a major supplier to the Ministry of Defence, with UK revenues exceeding £2.5 billion and exports worth nearly £1 billion. The company employs over 8,500 people across the UK, with its Yeovil site – the UK’s last remaining helicopter plant and only end-to-end rotary-wing manufacturer – alone employing more than 3,300 people, including 430 design-focused engineers. The site has been an aerospace hub for more than a century, dating back to 1915, and has produced over 3,300 helicopters; around 50% of the UK Armed Forces’ frontline helicopter fleet originates from Yeovil.
The new contract builds on Leonardo’s recent investment in a £30 million Single Site Logistics Hub in Yeovil, a state-of-the-art facility designed to revolutionise helicopter fleet servicing and improve the efficiency and responsiveness of spare parts delivery. The hub features sustainability measures such as re-used demolition materials, LED lighting and electric vehicle charging points. David Arrowsmith, vice president support and service solutions UK at Leonardo, said: “By taking ownership of the full supply chain, from forecasting and procurement through to obsolescence management, we are best placed to provide the MoD with the responsiveness and efficiency that modern defence operations demand.”
Leonardo is also a key partner in the Eurofighter Typhoon programme, responsible for over 60% of the aircraft’s onboard avionics, including its radar and defensive aid sub-system. The Typhoon fleet is expected to remain in service until 2040, while the Chinook fleet – of which the RAF operates 54 aircraft, the largest outside the United States – is projected to continue flying into the 2040s. The A400M Atlas, which has become the predominant RAF air movements platform since the retirement of the Hercules C130, has played a major role in operations including the Kabul evacuation (Operation Pitting) and non-combatant evacuations in Sudan (Operation Polar Bear). The C-17 Globemaster III, of which the RAF operates eight, has been used for missions ranging from repatriating British nationals to transporting the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard MP described the investment as “crucial in maintaining the military aircraft that keep the UK safe at home and secure abroad”, directly linking it to the defence of NATO airspace and the protection of British citizens in the Middle East. The Ministry of Defence remains Leonardo’s most important customer, and the company’s Yeovil base supports a UK-wide helicopter supply chain that sustains over 12,000 jobs overall.
