THE Government is set to announce the sale of 72 Eurofighter Typhoons to Saudi Arabia, possibly as early as Wednesday.

The fighters will be built by BAE Systems in a deal thought to be worth about £5 billion.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, is understood to be ready to sign the contract. The contract is also expected to include a provision for BAE to supply long-term maintenance for the jets, which could be worth another £5 billion.

The Eurofighter is a joint programme between Britain, Italy, Germany and Spain to build the next generation attack aircraft. The Typhoon will replace the RAF’s Jaguar and Tornado jets. Until now, only one export order has been won for the aircraft — from Austria. The 18 Austrian jets are being built in Germany.

The proposed Saudi order is significant because of its size: 72 aircraft is nearly 15 per cent of all the planned Eurofighters. BAE will build the first lot of 24, but production of later aircraft may be shifted to Saudi Arabia. The deal should guarantee work for the 9,000 staff at BAE’s Warton factory in Lancashire until about 2014.

Saudi Arabia is also understood to have asked for the delivery programme of its first Typhoons to be stepped up. This may mean that some of Britain’s allocation of 144 Eurofighters is postponed or even cancelled.

American troops pulled out of Saudi Arabia in 2003 and security experts believe that the Kingdom wants the aircraft earlier in response to a heightened threat from Iran.

The Ministry of Defence refused to comment yesterday.

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