The agreement with Survivtec will ensure RAF and Royal Navy personnel are well-equipped if they are ever in danger.
Pilots and sailors will have vital survival equipment under a new £25-million contract that will also support 50 UK jobs.
Birkenhead-based Survitec Group will provide the Royal Air Force with life-saving kit under a five-year contract. Work will predominantly take place at the company’s Birkenhead and Gosport sites, as well as further work taking place in Aberdeen and Dunmurry.
The contract will see the RAF being supplied with immersion protection garments such as life rafts and life preservers, and high-G kit such as anti-gravity trousers. Anti-G clothing will ensure pilots can cope with the high levels of acceleration they experience when flying agile fast jets, such as F-35, Typhoon and Hawk aircraft.
Kit for the Royal Navy will include multi-person life rafts and associated spares provision, as well as a rapid turnaround life raft servicing programme which facilitates the removal and return of life rafts to the vessel within 15 days.
The contract will also ensure RAF and Navy personnel will be able to order on demand a wide range of sailor and aircrew personal protection and survival equipment as and when they need it.
Director Air Support at DE&S, Richard Murray, said: “This new, improved contract with Survitec will ensure that high-quality, life-saving equipment is available when it is most needed.
The specialist anti-G trousers are designed to prevent gravity-induced loss of consciousness. Inflatable bladders are fitted inside the anti-G clothing and when pressurised, press firmly on the stomach and legs to restrict the draining of blood away from the brain during periods of high acceleration.
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