AN Ipswich firm is celebrating today after clinching a major £1million contract for the MoD.Tex Special Projects Ltd, based at Great Blakenham, is set to build and install “Flyco” flying control rooms for two new aircraft carriers.

AN Ipswich firm is celebrating today after clinching a major £1million contract for the MoD.

Tex Special Projects Ltd, based at Great Blakenham, is set to build and install “Flyco” flying control rooms for two new aircraft carriers.

HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales are to be built for the Royal Navy under a £3billion contract announced last month by the Minister for Defence Procurement.

The news that Tex has won the first £1million phase of the £2.2million control room project has been welcomed by its managing director Mark Harrison.

He sadi: “The initial phase of this £2.2million sub-contract confirms Tex as a serious player in the defence market as we have already supplied six other control rooms to MoD projects.”

Tex Special Projects is part of the Tex Group, which has been designing and building air traffic control rooms for the civil and military sectors worldwide for the past ten years.

The control room will be fitted with the largest glazed area ever used in a warship, made up of ten pieces over 3m in height and weighing in at 500kg a piece.

The team behind its development scooped a BAE Systems Chairman's Award for Innovation in September, presented at the Imperial War Museum, for their work.

The control rooms will be built locally and floated by barge from Ipswich to Rosyth, where final assembly of the carriers will take place, for installation by the Ipswich team.

Minister for Defence Equipment and Support Baroness Taylor said the construction of the ships would provide a major boost to UK maritime industries and transform the UK's military capabilities.