Marshalls bids for £500m contract

A Boeing 767 being built at the company's Washington factory

Hundreds of new jobs could be created at Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge if the company succeeds in winning a £500m conversion contract.

More staff will be taken on if Marshalls, in partnership with Boeing, succeeds in its ambitious bid to become part of the UK Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft Programme (FSTA).

The bid, the biggest in the company's history, is being assessed by the Ministry of Defence.

The contract would see Marshalls convert 17 Boeing 767s into aerial refuelling tankers between 2007 and 2012.

Only one other company, British Aerospace, is in the bidding.

We are delighted to be part of this tremendous multi-billion global opportunity Marshall Aerospace chairman Michael Marshall

Marshall Aerospace is the UK's leading privately-owned aerospace company, specialising in design, development, maintenance, modification and conversion of aircraft.

It is also bidding to Boeing to become involved in the United States Air Force's controversial tanker programme, supplying sophisticated auxiliary fuel tanks, initially for 100 aircraft.

"We are delighted to be part of this tremendous multi-billion global opportunity, that may well even create opportunities for such systems in the commercial sector," said Marshall Aerospace chairman Michael Marshall.

Boeing is the largest aerospace company in the world and the United States' leading exporter.

The controversial contract to lease rather than buy the 100 tanker aircraft to the Pentagon has been criticised in Congress.

But supporters of the deal claim that leasing allows the planes to come into service much earlier than otherwise would be possible.