London - Thousands of aerospace workers across Britain received a huge Christmas bonus yesterday with the signing of the £40 billion Eurofighter agreement. The British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, flew to Bonn to sign the long-awaited arrangements for Eurofighter production with his counterparts from Germany, Italy and Spain. He said Eurofighter was crucial for the RAF and the future of the European aerospace industry.
Britain has a 38 per cent stake in the project through British Aerospace and Eurofighter will provide up to 40,000 direct and indirect jobs at peak production.
Eurofighter is a single-seat, twin-engine, agile combat aircraft which will be used for air defence, ground attack and reconnaissance. Britain plans to buy 232 Eurofighters to replace the Tornado F3 and the Jaguar. Germany will buy 180, Italy 121 and Spain 87.