The US Army will recieve new personnel parachutes from a division of BAE Systems as part of a $220m rollout programme.

BAE is one of the three companies that will produce the T-11 parachutes, to replace the existing T-10 parachutes.

The company says it will make more than 60 T-11 parachutes a week at its Phoenix production facility, when production commences.

Future orders based on performance will be allowed under the five-year deal, for which terms and conditions were not disclosed.