As many as 70 new jobs could be created at Raytheon’s (www.raytheon.co.uk) special-mission aircraft facility in Broughton, following an agreement with the RAF to upgrade its fleet of Shadow R1 surveillance and reconnaissance planes.

The Broughton facility will play a key role in the upgrade of the RAF’s heavily adapted Shadow R1 Beechcraft King Air turboprop aircraft; there are currently five Mk1 Shadow aircraft in service with 14 Squadron (based at the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) hub at RAF Waddington).

The Ministry of Defence plans to add three more Shadow R1 aircraft as part of its 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review.

Under the terms of its new arrangement, Raytheon’s ‘centre of excellence’ at Broughton will “improve the design, modification, configuration management and support aspects of the Shadow and Sentinel surveillance platform” which will secure jobs at the site.

To provide support for the ISR fleet, Raytheon moved into a second hangar at Hawarden Airport earlier this year.

The Welsh Government has invested £1 million in the new Hanger 119, and the special-mission aircraft workforce is expected to increase from 160 to 230 by April 2018.