DEFENCE electronics specialist Joyce-Loebl has landed contracts totalling £3m equipping front line warplanes.

The Gateshead company won a £1m export prize while working with the Norwegian airforce.

In a second contract, Joyce-Loebl beat tough competition to secure a £2m contract to replace computer display equipment on the RAF's Awacs early warning aircraft fleet.

The Norwegian contract is for the supply of airborne countermeasures dispensing systems for Bell 412 helicopters.

The work mirrors an earlier contract for the Ministry of Defence to fit similar protection to Sea King and Chinook helicopters.

The system shoots out clouds of tiny metal filaments to distract enemy radar away from the aircraft.

It also fires flares as decoys to fool enemy heat-seeking missiles so that they cannot home in on the aircraft's engine exhaust.

The contract also includes installation, advice and training.

Delivery will be completed by May next year - less than a year from order.

The 18 aircraft will be used in support of Nato peace-keeping operations in Kosovo.

The Awacs contract is for the replacement of all computer displays on eight or nine of the distinctive Awacs Boeing aircraft, with their large mushroom-shaped "radomes" above the fuselage.

The mission systems display technology on the aircraft is now ten years old, and there was a growing need to replace and upgrade it to improve performance and reliability.

Trevor Grugan, director of Joyce-Loebl's defence systems division, said: "Both these orders represent real commercial breakthroughs for Joyce-Loebl, as we have beaten off tough competitive challenges to win business in new markets."