Defence Ministers support Eurofighter at Defendory International Airshow, Greece

HALLBERGMOOS 5th October (PROTEXT) - A very strong combinedgovernment and industrial delegation from all four EurofighterTyphoon nations is visiting this week's Defendory exhibition inAthens. The defence procurement Ministers from Germany, Italy,Spain and the United Kingdom have been joined by the ChiefExecutives of the Eurofighter partner companies.

The delegation's purpose is to show its strong commitment tothe Eurofighter Typhoon project and in particular to progress anumber of export opportunities. Austria has selected EurofighterTyphoon and the aircraft is on the final shortlist in Singapore.Eurofighter Typhoon was also judged in 1999 by the then Greekgovernment to meet the Greek Air Force's next generation fighterrequirement. The Eurofighter Typhoon delegation is making clearits support for Greek involvement in the project and for relatedindustrial activities in Greece.

Eurofighter Typhoon is being brought into service with thepartner nation air forces, and is winning enthusiastic supportfrom all the pilots who have flown it. Its world-classperformance is matched by its exceptional reliability andavailability. Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft recently demonstratedtheir air-to- air capability when they flew 10.000 km toSingapore for trials and evaluation activities - an outstandingachievement for an aircraft so soon after its introduction intoservice.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Eurofighter Typhoon is the world's most advanced swing-rolecombat aircraft, developed by the leading aerospace companies,Alenia Aeronautica, BAE SYSTEMS, EADS Germany and EADS CASA, ofthe four partner countries, Italy, United Kingdom, Germany andSpain.

Agile and highly maneuverable, the twin-engine EurofighterTyphoon is designed to operate from hastily prepared bases andsmall runways for worldwide operations. It is equipped with anadvanced multi-mode radar and an extensive range of sensors andelectronic countermeasures.

The aircraft's ability to gain air superiority beyond visualrange (BVR) and in close combat, and at the same time deliverhigh sortie rates against air, naval and ground targets in allweathers with a variety of weapons, demands close attention topilot workload. In Eurofighter the pilot flies through use of acomputerized flight control system, which offers full carefreehandling.

A strong emphasis has been placed on reducing cost ofownership in addition to outstanding performance and flightsafety. Eurofighter Typhoon is less expensive to run than thegeneration of aircraft it is designed to replace.

The Eurofighter partner nations plan to take delivery of 620aircraft: 180 for Germany, 121 for Italy, 87 for Spain and 232for the United Kingdom. An additional export order of 18Eurofighter Typhoon has been agreed with the Government ofAustria. Eurofighter has also been downselected in Singapore ina competition for a Future Fighter.

The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defense has agreed anindustrial participation programme with Eurofighter GmbH for thefuture enhancement of the weapon system. Eurofighter Typhoon hasalso been selected by Greece to meet its respective requirementsfor a future fighter.

Following Type Acceptance on 30 June, 2003, Series ProductionAircraft have now been delivered to each of the four nation airforces and entry into service training is proceeding. Thisfollows first flights of three twin-seat Instrumented ProductionAircraft (IPA) in April 2002, and first flight of a single-seatInstrumented Production Aircraft (IPA4) on 26 February 2004.

Images: High Resolution images of the Eurofighter Typhoon canbe downloaded from our web site. Hard Copy images are availableon request. www.eurofighter.com/medialibrary

For More Information contact:

Ian Bustin

Vice-President Communications

Telephone +49 (0)811 80-1555 / 1734 Mobile +49 (0)1728443023 Fax +49 (0)811 80-1557 E-mail: info@eurofighter.com

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