HUNDREDS of Hampshire workers for Smiths Aerospace are celebrating today after winning an £11.5m deal to supply equipment to the army's cutting edge Future Lynx helicopter programme.

The contract will Smiths install cockpit equipment, including a voice and data recorder on 70 of the Future Lynx aircraft, pictured, for the Ministry of Defence.

Development is set to start this year at the Smiths' facilities in Hampshire, where the company employs more than 1,000 people at plants in Hamble and Chandler's Ford, and Michigan in America.

The Future Lynx is a £1 billion project to provide the next generation of battlefield helicopter for the army with Italian owned Augusta Westland. Essentially it is a faster, more capable version of the existing Lynx helicopter that has been in service since the seventies.

The MoD claims the project will support a total of 850 UK jobs.

Smiths will install its Health & Usage Monitoring System (HUMS) in the craft which continuously monitors the performance of safety-critical components, providing advance warning of potential equipment failures.

Smiths Aerospace president Dr. John Ferrie said: "With more than 400 HUMS and two million flight hours, Smiths is the world leader in the supply of HUMS for both military and commercial helicopter applications."

The first Future Lynx will make its maiden flight in 2009, with initial deliveries in 2011. The Army variant will enter operational service in 2014, with Royal Navy version following in 2015. On top of the initial 70 ordered by the MoD, there is an option for 10 more.

Smiths Aerospace, a part of Smiths Group, is spread across the Atlantic with bases in the UK and North America and employs 11,000 people world wide generating £1.08 billion sales.