Four nations, four air forces and the four leading European aerospace companies—EADS, EADS Casa, BAE Systems and Alenia Finmeccanica—fully support the Eurofighter campaign in India.

India has been invited to join the Eurofighter programme as a new partner. Announcing the invitation, Bernhard Gerwert, CEO of Military Air Systems, an integrated activity of EADS Defence & Security, said, As part of our industrial cooperation offer, we invite India to become a member of the successful Eurofighter family. India is our partner of choice and we are interested in long-lasting political, industrial and military relations which will be based on a win-win partnership. Therefore the door is widely open for India.

Addressing representatives of the Indian Ministry of Defence, the Indian Air Force, suppliers and the media in Delhi on April 24, Gerwert emphasised that Eurofighter partners have intensive experiences in international cooperation because the combat aircraft is developed and manufactured as a quadrinational programme from the very beginning. Underlining that four nations, four air forces and the four leading European aerospace companies—EADS, EADS Casa, BAE Systems and Alenia Finmeccanica—fully support the Eurofighter campaign in India, he said: We have a strong and committed international team and we will make sure that Eurofighter will be a major player in a fair and transparent competition. On behalf of the Eurofighter consortium and the industrial partners, EADS will deliver the bid proposal in response to India’s Request for Proposal (RFP) for Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft on April 28.

Conceding that the RFP’s requirements pertaining to transfer of technology, licence production and 50 per cent offset are challenging, Gerwert said, We are ready to meet these challenges and we will satisfy the expectations of our customer. Our team is working extremely hard to meet these requirements. As a fast growing and dynamic country, India is not only regarded as a market but most importantly as a partner for joint industrial and military projects in the future. As a recent example, EADS Defence & Security and TATA announced in February 2008 to join forces for the Indian Army’s $1 billion (Rs 4,015 crore) Tactical Communications System.