British aircraft manufacturer AERALIS has chosen Prestwick Airport in Ayrshire, Scotland as the site for its UK final assembly line, a decision that could mark the return of full-scale aircraft manufacturing to the region.
The company announced the move on 4 July, confirming that a strategic agreement with Prestwick Airport is currently under discussion. The site will serve as the hub for assembling and testing AERALIS’s modular light jet aircraft, which has been proposed as a replacement for the Royal Air Force’s current training fleet.
Tristan Crawford, CEO of AERALIS, said the airport’s “strong aviation legacy particularly in whole aircraft manufacture, as well as excellent local aerospace manufacturing and MRO resources” made it “the perfect choice.” He added that Prestwick’s operating model is “well suited to supporting new aerospace programmes.”
Prestwick Airport CEO Ian Forgie welcomed the announcement, calling it “an opportunity to generate jobs, apprenticeships, investment and innovation in the Prestwick area.”
The decision could see part of the Red Arrows’ future aircraft built and flown from Scotland, with AERALIS positioning itself as a contender for supplying the RAF’s next-generation trainer jets. The aircraft, designed for modular adaptability and cost-efficiency, would be built in collaboration with the company’s AERTEAM consortium of defence and aerospace suppliers.
The programme is expected to support more than 4,000 jobs across the UK, with a share of those now planned for Central Ayrshire.
The move follows renewed urgency from the Ministry of Defence to modernise the RAF’s fast-jet training capability. The 2025 Strategic Defence Review highlighted the need for a new light jet within tight timelines.
AERALIS believes it is ready to deliver. “With AERTEAM having demonstrated the industrial capability to deliver the programme within these timescales,” the company said, “AERALIS awaits UK Government commitment to the aircraft in order to move forward with these plans.”
Alan Gemmell, MP for Central Ayrshire, called the decision a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring jet manufacturing back to Prestwick,” adding, “I couldn’t be happier if [the Red Arrows] become Scottish as well as British.”
I was there for the announcement, stay tuned for more on this shortly.
I do wish this blessed aircraft would take to the skies, if it doesn’t soon it will just be binned by shortsighted politicians in favour some foreign thing.
Another defence project going to Scotland. Shouldn’t we be diversifying a bit in case Scotland decides to go independent in the next decade or two?
Idiot
You’re right. Being concerned that vital military equipment is being made in countries that could very likely leave sure is idiotic. It’s not like the Royal Navy is almost entirely dependent on Scotland for shipbuilding or anything.
Wales already has fantastic aerospace infrastructure and should be considered x
Highly unlikely to leave
In the next 5 years sure but what about the 2030s-2050s. Who knows what the political landscape will be like then. Nobody expected Brexit yet here we are.
“could very likely leave ”
On what basis?
A desire for independence needs a lot more % than is showing. The SNP have sunk. They cannot hold a referendum without HMG approval and that is not happening unless a majority call for it.
The vote in Scotland is biased as unionist parties have a split vote, Vs SNP and tiny Greens.
I’d say the opposite is true and if we rejoin the EU one day it would disappear.
And if we didn’t ?
It’s idiots like you that keep that shit coming, if you stayed in Scotland you would know there’s no chance of it happening the only reason the snp are where they are was keeping the cons out of as much as possible and now labour aren’t doing much better to be honest but just because snp always wins up here doesn’t mean we’re looking to break up the uk, a just can’t be arsed with people stirring between British countries all the time you should be happy it’s getting builtin Britain whatever country it is , YA BAWBAG 😗
You have no idea how things are going to play out in the future. If the vast majority of Scots hated the Tories then how are they going to feel about a potential reform government? If Scottish support for independence was around 30% or less then I wouldn’t have a problem but as you know it’s far higher than that. It’s not just politics, the UK’s economic outlook is pretty poor and who knows if we can turn that around or not, we could be looking at decades of slow decline and it’s entirely possible that Scotland and N.Ireland may want to jump ship at some point. If that happens then it’s only natural that I would hope that the government has a plan in place to try and minimise the damage to rUK’s defence production but the more likely answer is that rUK’s has no plans and would be caught out like a deer in headlights.
Why is he an idiot? I think given the current political climate, the swell of pro-independence opinions given on social media with associated polls, combined with the continued political push ‘North of the border’ for a second independence vote, its a perfectly reasonable question. Indeed I would offer its a concern that the UK government must consider for any new procurement, -including ship building – in the interests of UK security .Surely it would be remiss of them not to. Alternatively they could of course just quote your trite response.
Social media fuck sake get a grip
Like on here you mean?
Defence in the UK is biased towards Scotland. This is. in my view, a mistake regardless of Scotland’s future role in ot out of the UK.
How do the numbers stack up now that we have so few Fast Jets ? Surely this must target foreign markets which are pretty well catered for ATM. We aren’t talking the numbers of trainee pilots that Hawk was so successfull at training ?
(see, I can be serious)
I think part of the intention with Aeralis is that with the modularity, the fleet can be re-roled so that a small fleet of jets can take on all parts of the training cycle of a ‘cohort’ of pilots and the manufacturing numbers make more sense with airframe lives etc.
And there are tentative plans to widen the set of roles that can be chosen, I think. They already offer an unmanned tactical tanker/ISTAR, but an armed version to take the strain off Typhoon and Tempest for the low-intensity QRA work could be possible as well and you could also arm the unmanned-cockpit type as an adjunct to Protector.
Oh, thanks for that, hopefully It’ll progress, It’s a glorious history this country has in the way of aircraft design, would be great to see something come of this.
Jesus. You good, hun?
Need me to take the mic while you sober up?
#Day20
I have been called many names in my long messy life but “Jesus” isn’t one of them.
Oh and I’m tee total, no seriously I am, I’d get into all sorts of trouble If I drank dirty water.
“It’s the voices what makes me do it your honor”.
As TorpedoJ said, you make your trainer also do every other miscellaneous role you have. Red Arrows, aggressor, make it unmanned, etc. That’s the main sales point for Aeralis in fact, that their offer is much easier to modify than the competition.
Didn’t Tetron do something similar ?
Textron, doh !
I guess Prestwick and Broughton are the only places that really offer a multitude of supporting businesses nearby. The difference is that Broughton is owned by Airbus, which wouldn’t want a competitor trainer aircraft on their site, and Prestwick is owned by the Scottish Government, which can provide tax incentives and negotiate deals. Oh, and politics. I’m not sure where else sites like these exist that have the multitude of manufacturing businesses that could support them locally. Just a thought. I guess a quick shout out would be to St Athan, Welsh government-owned, but it looks like it doesn’t have the same levels of manufacturing support as the others.
If the intention is to provide a link to Tempest and the F-35, maybe some sort of partnership with BAE Systems could help provide a suitable location, taking the space of the Hawk production facility. Just a shame that Brough was left to be demolished.
Something wrong with England and Wales getting some work as well?
England gets around 90% of UK Defence work, what?
What metric do you use for that, is it by volume, or costs or what ? And what about Wales-what do they get ?
Why do we always have arseholes like yourself shouting about where things are made look up where most things are made and stop putting shit on here.
I know, right! George really needs to stop putting shit on here!
#StillDay20
Jeez a poor man’s halfwit 😁
You’re a bit of a keyboard warrior aren’t you …’CJ’.
No any time you want a word give me a shout
Point proven ‘CJ’
Please explain why I’m a keyboard warrior I just get sick of people trying to stir in fighting between British countries
Keyboard warriors are people that talk shit and try to abuse online because they’re to scared to do it face to face I’m not
And me.
Unless there are export orders or partnership economies, we build a trainer jet for small front line airforce is this really viable.
What does that mean? Your one of the idiots that like infighting between our countries or your going to see me, am in central Scotland by the way gies a shout when your here
In my view a cheap modern jet would be beneficial to the UK provided they could be built in sufficient numbers.