Asian Aerospace 2000 sees the public debut of Eurofighter's newly
established worldwide sales and marketing arm, Eurofighter International.
Headed by Cesare Gianni, Eurofighter International is now the
contracting entity for the Eurofighter Typhoon export market.
Eurofighter International sits as an umbrella organization above
the individual regional marketing efforts still handled by the
four Eurofighter partner nations-Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
However, when their front-end marketing efforts develop into an
active campaign, Eurofighter International takes over all negotiations
and contracts.
"Eurofighter International procures the weapons system from
the parent company, Eurofighter GmbH," Gianni explained.
"Now that we have entered a firm production phase an organization
like ours is needed. We can offer important supply, assembly and
co-production activity to customers and we can better accommodate
customer requirements for the basic aircraft configuration."
Eurofighter has a secure contract for 620 aircraft, plus 90 options,
from the four partner governments. It has been selected as Greece's
follow-on next-generation combat aircraft in a deal now being
finalized. Furthermore, Eurofighter International is involved
in three major active campaigns with several others pending. Gianni
noted that the wider European market is starting to rival the
export scene further afield.
Eurofighter International is focusing on what it terms the European
Partner Air Forces-namely Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark and
Belgium, all of which are currently F-16 operators. "Europe
is our natural home. We are competing with other good aircraft
but they are all from another, older generation," Gianni
said.
Eurofighter's three headline sales efforts are directed at Norway,
Greece and Korea. Norway holds a vital position as one of the
targeted European Partner Air Forces, and the Eurofighter Typhoon
is pitched in a straight battle with Lockheed Martin and follow-on
versions of the F-16. In June 1999 Eurofighter submitted a proposal
for 20 Eurofighter Typhoons, plus 10 options, and a contract decision
is expected in mid/late 2000. Norway has been offered considerable
industrial participation in the program, with a more than 100%
offset deal and now, a seat on the NETMO Eurofighter management
organization itself.
Referring to fears that the Norwegian requirement may be deferred,
Gianni reflected that, "there is a window of opportunity
as we move into full-scale Eurofighter production. Norway can
still be allocated significant assembly work or even single-source
production, but we need to reach an agreement sooner rather than
later. This window will not close but it will reduce with time."
The Greek contract, announced over 18 months ago, is now in the
final stages of negotiations for a batch of between 60 and 90
aircraft, plus options. Prior to Greece's April general elections
the national foreign affairs and defense committee (Kysea) will
meet on two occasions. It is expected that during these meetings,
the final Eurofighter contract and the wider question of the privatization
of the Greek aerospace industry should be finalized.
Korea has a requirement for at least 60 next-generation aircraft
to serve as F-4 and F-5 replacements. Final selection is anticipated
in mid-2001 with service entry scheduled for 2004/07. It is a
measure of Eurofighter's seriousness in the Korean market that
it has reserved invaluable slots in the seven-aircraft flight
test program (depriving Asian Aerospace 2000 of a Eurofighter
display, for example) so that Korean Air Force evaluation flights
can be hosted in November and December this year.
