DEFENCE specialist Joyce Loebl has won a £6m tank fleet contract - one of its biggest deals to date.\par The company which is based in Gateshead has signed the deal with Alvis Vickers, in Newcastle, to provide computerised engine and gearbox controls for Vickers' Challenger 2 tank fleet and support vehicles.

The contract will provide nearly three years' work for a team of 12 at Joyce Loebl's Team Valley works, where 135 people are employed.

The company will provide nearly 500 units for the tanks, and follows earlier, smaller contracts including one worth £1.1m for the Titan and Trojan armoured vehicles, which are currently in production at Alvis Vickers.

Production on the new contract is due to start at the end of this year and will go on until the middle of 2007.

The news follows Joyce Loebl's announcement record orders, with its order book now standing at about £24m.

Joyce Loebl has a business relationship of more than 20 years with Alvis Vickers and its predecessors.

Geoff Carswell, chief executive, said: "Joyce Loebl is delighted to continue to supply high-quality, reliable products to Alvis Vickers and the Ministry of Defence."

Joyce Loebl has also developed a testing system that it predicts will save the RAF money.

Electronic systems to protect aircraft from enemy attack have always had to be tested on the ground by the RAF, which meant that aircraft have to be taken out of service, costing valuable aircraft and crew time.

But Joyce Loebl has developed euqipment that enables the systems to be tested without taking the aircraft out of service.

It believes the data system, which will sell for about £200,000 per installation, could sell up to ten to Nato countries and others.

As well as the two recent contracts, Joyce Loebl is working on an ongoing contract worth up to £1m a year to supply commercial radio equipment to the Ministry of Defence.

The company's transport division also recently secured a £2.7m deal for the supply of security systems for Portuguese Railways.