Bae Systems has reached a civil settlement with the US Department of State by agreeing to pay a fine of up to $79m with respect to alleged civil breaches.

The US Department of State had previously fined BAE Systems in connection with violations of US defence export control regulations.

Under the four-year-term agreement, the fine will have a suspension of $10m towards the cost of enhanced export control compliance measures already implemented by the company.

The company’s few UK-based export programmes will also be subjected to enhanced administrative review.

BAE has been charged by the State Department with a total of 2,591 arms-control breaches of the US Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations.