SHORTS, the Belfast-based aerospace company, said its missile subsidiary had agreed with a major US airplane maker to bid for future high-tech weapons contracts.

Shorts Missile Systems and Hughes Aircraft are to join forces for Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile programmes in international markets. Shorts said it also had the potential to give the company access to other Hughes programmes. Shorts Missile Systems is a joint venture between Shorts Brothers, now a subsidiary of Bombardier. and Thomson-CSF of France.