US DEFENCE chiefs have ordered more than £10m worth of missile countermeasures from Hampshire defence group Chemring.

But the total figure could rise to more than £56m if the US takes up options for further orders written into the contract.

Known as chaff, the flares protect planes by confusing heatseeking missiles and sending them off target.

The order is just the latest as Whiteley based Chemring benefits from the revised military thinking following September 11. By May this year the company had sold £22m worth of products to the US military - more than a third of its total turnover of £57.4m.

The order for 700,000 flares was done through Chemring's US subsidiary Kilgore Flares Company, based in Toone, Tennessee.

The firm, which employs 800 people at sites in Portsmouth, Salisbury and Derby as well as the Whiteley HQ, specialises in smoke decoys which were first developed during the Second World War and used

during the Normandy landings.

David Evans, Chief Executive of Chemring, commented: "Kilgore is already distinguished as being the largest manufacturer and supplier of magnesium-based decoy flares in the US, and this order further enhances Chemring's position as the leading supplier of infra-red expendable decoys. The order book for our US countermeasures division now stands at over $124 million."

Since the end of April, the group has also won a £12m contract to design protection measures for Royal Navy ships. The company returned pretax profits of £5.8m.