BAE Systems has agreed a provisional sale of 48 Typhoon jets to Saudi Arabia – a deal which would secure thousands of jobs at the defence giant and its suppliers well into the next decade.

Company chiefs, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson and officials from the Gulf state have revealed a memorandum of intent as part of an inter-government deal for the £10bn-plus arrangement to supply the multi-role aircraft at the end of a controversial trade mission by Saudi Arabia to the UK.

The agreement – the final terms of which will now be negotiated – is a long-awaited follow-on order for Typhoons after BAE sold 72 of the jets to the Saudi air force in 2007.

The final price of this deal was only agreed in 2014 after years of wrangling.

BAE has slowed the production rate of the Mach 2 fighter because of a lack of orders, and cut hundreds of jobs from the line as anticipated demand failed to materialise.