Interim Management Statement and Board Update

26 April 2012

Cobham INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT AND BOARD UPDATE

Current Trading and Outlook

Trends in Cobham ('the Group' or 'Cobham') plc's markets and the Board's expectations remain unchanged since the Group's preliminary results announcement on 7 March. These expectations are for some underlying progress this year, after the benefit of last year's share buy-back. Organic revenue growth has been modestly positive in the first three months of 2012 and the Excellence in Delivery programme continues to make good progress, remaining on track to deliver the planned £8m of annualised year-on-year efficiency savings in 2012.

The Group is continuing to deliver against its strategic objectives. It has leading positions in selected attractive markets with a high technology focus and continues to invest in the development of leading edge and technically differentiated products and services, prioritising investment that will bring more balance between its defence/security and commercial markets. As a result, the Board is confident that the Group will continue to make progress over the medium term.

Acquisitions and Divestments

On 10 April, The Group announced an offer for the share capital of Thrane & Thrane A/S ('Thrane & Thrane'), valuing the business at approximately £270m. In the same announcement, the Group disclosed that it had already purchased 25.6% of the issued share capital of the Company. Thrane & Thrane and Cobham's SATCOM businesses are highly complementary and the combined operation would have increased technology advantage and scale in maritime, land and airborne SATCOM systems. The offer document was published on 19 April, with the offer period expiring on 21 May.

The Group's remaining small planned divestments are progressing as expected.

Board Update

Cobham announced on 23 April the appointment of Robert (Bob) Murphy as Chief Executive Officer ('CEO') of Cobham with effect from 25 June 2012. Bob has a successful track record spanning 25 years in the civil, commercial and defence sectors of the Aerospace & Defence industry. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of BAE Systems plc and Executive Vice President with responsibility for the global operations of the Product Sectors business for BAE Systems Inc. Andy Stevens will continue to assist the Board until further notice and will support Bob during his transition.

Warren Tucker has served as Chief Financial Officer ('CFO') of Cobham since May 2003. Cobham has separately announced today that Warren will stand down at the Annual General Meeting in 2013, after completing 10 years of service. This will enable a good transition with the new CEO and facilitate, in due course, the process for appointing and handing over to a new CFO.

Operational Update

The Group's focus on technology and product development has resulted in the award of a number of significant contracts in the period, some of which will generate revenue over a number of years. Order intake in the quarter was encouraging and at the end of the quarter, the order book had increased slightly at constant translation exchange rates to £2.5bn.

Cobham has announced the following awards during the period:

·; In January, announcement of selection by Boeing to provide body fuel tanks in support of the US Air Force's KC-46 tanker programme, with each of the 179 tankers in the initial requirement expected to carry four of the body fuel tanks. The engineering phase of the award commenced in January, with production to 2028;

·; In March, FB Heliservices, a Cobham joint venture, announced the award by the UK Ministry of Defence of a four year contract plus two possible one year extensions to continue to provide helicopter flying training and support services in a contract worth £193 million, commencing in April;

·; In April, announcement of a number of orders in the first quarter totalling over £13m to supply ground-penetrating radar and support for a number of NATO customers. The orders are expected to be delivered during 2012.

Financial Position

The company has achieved strong operating cash conversion in the period.  Net debt decreased to £215m at the end of March (31 December 2011: £232m). The substantial part of the £66m invested in 25.6% of Thrane & Thrane was in April.

Cobham's robust balance sheet and conservative level of gearing, together with its strong cash generation, positions it well to create shareholder value through organic investment and attractive acquisitions while increasing dividend payments.

Following favourable changes to UK legislation on the taxation of overseas subsidiaries and expected changes to the financing of the Group's subsidiaries, it is now likely that the Group's underlying tax rate will be lower than previously expected for a few years starting in 2012.

Cobham's Annual General Meeting is to be held today at 12.00pm and its interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2012 will be announced on 8 August 2012.

- ends -

ENQUIRIES

NOTES

1. Cobham specialises in meeting the insatiable demand for data, connectivity and bandwidth in defence, security and commercial environments. Offering a technically diverse and innovative range of technologies and services, the Group protects lives and livelihoods, responding to customer needs with agility that differentiates it. The most important thing we build is trust. Employing more than 10,000 people on five continents, the Group has customers and partners in over 100 countries.

2. This document contains 'forward-looking statements' with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Cobham and to certain of Cobham's plans and objectives with respect to these items.

Forward-looking statements are sometimes but not always identified by their use of a date in the future or such words as 'anticipates', 'aims', 'due', 'could', 'may', 'should', 'expects', 'believes', 'intends', 'plans', 'targets', 'goal', or 'estimates'. By their very nature, forward-looking statements are inherently unpredictable, speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or will occur in the future.

There are various factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, changes in the economies, political situations and markets in which the Group operates; changes in government priorities due to programme reviews or revisions to strategic objectives; changes in the regulatory or competition frameworks in which the Group operates; the impact of legal or other proceedings against or which affect the Group; changes to or delays in programmes in which the Group is involved; the completion of acquisitions and divestitures and changes in exchange rates.

All written or verbal forward-looking statements, made in this document or made subsequently, which are attributable to Cobham or any other member of the Group or persons acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. Cobham does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.