Gulf Typhoon jet orders help UK leapfrog export rivals

Britain has climbed up an arms export ranking to become the fourth biggest defence exporter in the world last year because of huge deliveries of Eurofighter Typhoon jets to the Gulf.

The table, compiled on actual deliveries rather than sales, shows that the UK leapfrogged Germany in 2013 by delivering $3.9bn (£2.3bn) of arms to foreign buyers.

The figure was up from around £2bn the year before and Britain’s rise was driven by deliveries to Saudi Arabia of the BAE Systems-assembled Eurofighter Typhoon.

Read more