As the representative heads of Airbus, Leonardo and BAE Systems, the largest defence and aerospace companies in Europe, we are proud to deliver products and services that underpin that collective security from all perspectives, military, industrial, technological and economic, preserving the freedom of action for Europe to determine its own course.
Eurofighter is one such product. Born from a long and rich history of collaboration between European partners it is the very embodiment of a programme which continues to deliver the military, industrial and technological security we describe across Europe.
Quite simply Eurofighter is the largest defence collaboration programme in Europe ever; a programme that has delivered a combat proven aircraft with outstanding levels of capability and reliability across the entire spectrum of air warfare tasks.
100% designed, manufactured and assembled across Europe; every Euro invested in Eurofighter by Belgium will stay within the broader European economy. With more than 500 aircraft in service across the European NATO theatre, it will remain the most prevalent and predominant multi-role fighter in Europe into the middle of the 21st century.
Indeed, for that very reason, we believe that Eurofighter will be the aircraft that provides the highest military, political and economic value for Belgium and Europe, continuing to develop and prove the technology and concepts required with our European partners.
This is why we believe Eurofighter is the best solution for Belgium; the only European solution, and the only solution that addresses all of Belgium’s military and essential security interests, fostering closer military to military relationships between the user-communities of Europe.
Our Eurofighter consortium already generates an estimated €600M of value in Belgium every year, supporting more than 200 companies and in excess of 6000 jobs across the regions. We intend to grow this.
We are committed to investment in research and development, establishing advanced new facilities across Belgium to develop the future industrial technologies and capabilities that will allow Belgian companies to play a role in the continued development of Eurofighter and next generation European aircraft programmes beyond. We would welcome Belgium as a valued member of the Eurofighter programme and our wider collaborative family moving forwards.
Independently assessed, our proposals will deliver an estimated €19Bn of additional economic value to the Belgian economy, not to mention establishing a National Network Cyber Defence capability that will protect vital sectors of the Belgian economy.
The world is a changing and volatile place. We strongly believe that Eurofighter is the right choice for Belgium and the right choice for our collective European security.
Mr Dirk Hoke - CEO, Airbus Defence & Space
Mr Maurizio de Mitri - SVP, Leonardo Combat Aircraft
Mr Chris Boardman - Group MD, BAE Systems Air
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from Defense Aerospace - Press releases https://ift.tt/2Lwf70Q
via Defense
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