Camern warns of ‘modern threats’ to UK

BRITIsh Airways announced an order for 20 Airbus aircraft today as the Prime Minister was given the chance to see the view from the flightdeck.
Prime Minister David Cameron sits in the co-pilots seat in the cockpit as he is shown around an Airbus A350 during a visit to the 2014 Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire.Prime Minister David Cameron sits in the co-pilots seat in the cockpit as he is shown around an Airbus A350 during a visit to the 2014 Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire.
Prime Minister David Cameron sits in the co-pilots seat in the cockpit as he is shown around an Airbus A350 during a visit to the 2014 Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire.

Mr Cameron was at the Farnborough Air Show where he announced a £1.1 billion cash injection for defence “to help keep our country safe and stop terrorism at source”.

He said defence nowadays was “not about battle tanks in central Europe” but about “modern threats”.

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On a visit on the opening day of the Farnborough air show in Hampshire, Mr Cameron said the money had become available as the coalition government has been able to “close the black hole in the defence budget that it had inherited”.

He went on: “There are threats that you cannot defend against from the White Cliffs of Dover.”

Visiting aircraft stands and meeting defence and aviation business leaders at Farnborough today, Mr Cameron also announced plans to set up a UK Defence Solutions Centre in Farnborough to develop new defence technology.

A £4 million UK Centre for Maritime Intelligent Systems based in Portsmouth is also being launched which will see the development of a hi-tech unmanned submarine.

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Also a “defence apprenticeship trailblazer” scheme to attract new graduates to the industry as well as develop a new masters level standard in advanced systems engineering.

Mr Cameron was shown around the flightdeck of an A350 Airbus aircraft at the show.

Earlier, British Airways’s parent company IAG had announced an order for 20 A320 planes.

The aircraft, whose wings are made in the UK, are intended to replace 21 short-haul BA planes.

Airbus also announced it had chosen Rolls-Royce engines for two new models.