Mr Joyce told a breakfast meeting in Tamworth that if BAE Systems won the 25-year Air 5428 contract, but flight training was run from outside of the city, he would “go to war”.

“If BAE does anything but puts it in Tamworth, I will go to war,” he said. “If BAE loses the contract to another player, I can’t do anything about that.”

When the various organisations tendered for Project Air 5428, they had to submit tenders for running the flight training at their organisation’s facility as well as running it at RAAF Base East Sale.

It is understood that the government could award BAE Systems the contract with the proviso that the organisation runs it from East Sale.

Tamworth has thrown its support behind BAE Systems keeping the Australian Defence Force Basic Flight Training School in Tamworth, with the city becoming the first Defence Reserve Supportive City in Australia.

“No decision has been made as yet,” Mr Joyce said. 

“It is tough. It is not just an issue of BAE. There is Lockheed Martin and other bidders out there as well. I keep as close as I possibly can to this on a whole range of levels. I want it to remain there. I’ve made that abundantly clear to the prime minister. My conversations have gone from quiet to quite direct.”

Mr Joyce said he was at the point where he had discussed expanding the training of Singaporean pilots in Tamworth as a contingency plan.

“They (Singapore) have 4000 pilots,” he said. “They’re looking for homes for 4000 pilots. If Lockheed Martin wins the contract and BAE doesn’t, we have a facility the Singaporeans can expand their role in. We can just change from one to another. I’ll make sure Tamworth gets a deal they’ve never seen before in their life.”

It is understood that the tender will be announced by the middle of this year.