Aero India 2011: Eurofighter consortium seeks industrial partnership with India

The Eurofighter Partner Companies are keen to win India as a new industrial partner for the production and further development of the world’s most advanced swing-role combat aircraft, the company said during Aero India 2011 that kicked off in Bangalore on Wednesday.

In order to phase India into the global Eurofighter Typhoon program as a significant manufacturing and engineering partner, the Eurofighter partners will promote strategic relationship between India and Europe.

“We are starting to develop the base for a comprehensive future supplier network which will plug India into the global Eurofighter supply chain. Even before the MMRCA selection, we invest in making India a new home for the Eurofighter Typhoon, Bernhard Gerwert, CEO of Cassidian Air Systems and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Eurofighter GmbH, revealed during Asia’s biggest air show, in which, about 675 aircraft manufacturing companies from across the world are participating.

An acquisition of the Eurofighter Typhoon, the most modern multi-role combat aircraft available on the world market and the latest technology fighter aircraft on offer for the MMRCA, will create more than 20,000 high-skilled jobs in India and support the development of a self-reliant indigenous defense industry.

Cassidian, the EADS Division for Security and Defence, in a bid to implement its industrialization strategy, recently opened the first defence oriented engineering centre owned by a foreign company in India. Cassidian plans to increase the current number of 60 employees in its defense engineering center to more than 200 by the end of 2012, with many of them working on Eurofighter related tasks.

We strongly believe that Eurofighter Typhoon is indeed the best choice for safeguarding India’s autonomy and sovereignty. Its selection will elevate the strategic relationship between India and Europe to a completely new level, Gerwert said.

According to Enzo Casolini, CEO of Eurofighter GmbH, India and other nations in Asia are important markets for combat aircraft. Eurofighter is vying for the current Indian Air Force Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition to win the bid to supply India with 126 Multi-Role Combat Aircraft.

“India is running this tough competition and will evaluate the final result in every detail. In the next 20 years the total world market for combat aircraft could reach a total of 800 units. We believe that Eurofighter Typhoon could potentially win orders for around 250 of these aircraft,” Casolini said.