Airbus in Broughton may be the biggest aerospace employer in Wales, but almost as vital to the sector are parent company EADS's sites in Newport, which employ 1,400 people - most in high-skilled engineering and technical jobs - and arguably support several times that number in academia and the supply chain.
EADS's presence in the small south Wales city began when it bought secure communications specialist Cogent in 2001, transforming it from a purely defence supplier into a much broader specialist in integrating communications, cryptology and surveillance systems for public sector customers.
Part of EADS's Defence and Security division, it relocated last year from the other side of Newport to a £35 million ($51 million) campus at Celtic Springs, which it shares with a unit of EADS Innovation Works, the European giant's new global network of seven research and development facilities or technical capability centres.
Although the operations are separate, EADS Defence and Security is a major customer for EADS Innovation Works' R&D - most of the technical centres are situated next to a bigger EADS business. The Newport facilities are part of what head of operations at the centre Tony Bagnall calls "Wales's vibrant economy, creating high-calibre jobs, not just at EADS but throughout academia and at SMEs". This means, he says, that "we can attract graduates coming out of Welsh universities, who don't need to go elsewhere for a job".
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Source: Flight International