Eurofighter
July 31, 2009
The contract, worth about eight billion euros ($11.2 billion), for 112 of the 236 planes in the third tranche, was signed at the Eurofighter consortium headquarters near Munich by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The Eurofighter Typhoon, a multi-purpose combat aircraft, has been developed by a consortium of European aerospace companies - BAE Systems of Britain, the Italian company Alenia/Finmeccanica and EADS, which represents the industrial interests of both Spain and Germany.
The Bundestag initially approved an appropriation of 14.6 billion euros for 180 planes twelve years ago. But that number has been reduced by 37 jets to 143.
The involved countries divided work on the plane in 1998 according to the number of aircraft each country planned to buy. The total number of planes ordered was 620 and they were booked to be delivered in three stages through 2017.
With the new order, 31 of the jets will go to Germany. The German government is also looking to sell other jets to other countries.
av/dpa/AFP
Editor: Neil King