IN SIX months an East Dorset aerospace and defence company has seen its order book grow by half a billion pounds thanks to strong demand from national security and military markets in America.

At the end of June, £2.2 billion of orders had been placed with Cobham plc in Wimborne compared to £1.7 billion in 2007.

The company employs 1,000 staff in Dorset and a total of 10,000 across five continents.

Allan Cook, Cobham chief executive commented: "The outlook for our US military and national security markets remains robust and we are confident that we will be slightly ahead of our growth targets for the year."

Cobham, the world's largest manufacturer of mid-air refuelling devices for aircraft, experienced particularly strong revenue from vehicle intercoms and the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) programme.

The company is a 20 per cent shareholder in AirTanker which will provide the FSTA to the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

It has £150m of orders to provide an RAF mid-air refuelling programme.

Cobham has spent over £563m (US$1.1m) on five acquisitions and still has over £300m (US$600m) to invest on further deals.

Mr Cook said that the company "continues to seek acquisition opportunities in a consolidating industry."

Total group revenue in the first half of 2008 increased by 28 per cent to £632.3m compared to £493.8m in 2007.

Group trading profit rose by 27.7 per cent from £83.4m last year to £106.5m.

Cobham recently joined the FTSE 100 - a share index of the 100 most highly capitalised companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.