On the eve of this year’s Farnborough Air Show, ADS Group — the trade organisation representing the aerospace, defence, and security industries in the UK — has published the latest data for the UK’s Aerospace and Defence industries. Farnborough International Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of ADS Group.

Both industries saw a rise in turnover in 2015, and productivity continues to outpace national levels by a considerable margin. In the aerospace sector, employment increased to 128,300 while turnover rose 6.5%, to £31.1bn — an increase of 39% since 2010. The aerospace industry exported goods to the value of £27bn; Europe, North America and the Middle East remain the three largest export markets.

On the defence side, UK industry industry directly employed 142,000 people (down from 160,000 in 2010), and indirectly supported 111,000 jobs. Turnover jumped 9%, to £24bn in 2015 and productivity has grown by 18 per cent over the past five years. Exports were £8.5bn in 2014, with an average value of £7.7bn between 2010-2014.

According to ADS Group, nearly half of Defence companies are expecting to grow by 10% or more in the next 12 months, with Europe the dominant export location.