Six States, Five Firms to Develop Fighter Plane:PaperSix governments and five aircraft manufacturers have agreed to jointly develop a fighter plane that can operate with or without a pilot, according to the Friday edition of the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD).The fighter plane, which will replace the Eurofighter, Gripen and Rafale, could be operational within 15 years, the FTD quoted a spokesman for the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) as saying. The first prototypes should be available between 2005 and 2010, it added. The FTD said the five companies involved in the military technology programme were Britain's BAs Systems, France's Dassault, Italy's Alenia, Sweden's Saab and EADS. The European Technology Acquisition Programme originally involving Britain, France, Germany and Sweden would be expanded to include Italy and Spain, the paper said. |
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