Eurofighter relief as Brown approves order - Germany also orders more - by Jeremy Lemer
Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, gave long-awaited approval for an order of Eurofighter Typhoon jets on Thursday – but warned industry that he expected a much lower price tag. The decision came as a relief to Germany, Italy and Spain – Britain’s programme partners – which feared Mr Brown would abandon or delay the multibillion-euro third production run.
The consortium responsible for building the Eurofighter Typhoon combat jet on Thursday welcomed Britain's decision to take part in the next round of production and pegged the four-nation deal at around 8 billion euros. After weeks of pressure from European allies, Britain gave tentative approval earlier on Thursday to the next tranche of production and said it hoped to be able to order the planes later this year following further negotiations. "The agreement that the UK have confirmed today sends a clear signal of customer commitment," Enzo Casolini, chief executive of Eurofighter GmbH, said in a statement. The consortium -- grouping BAE Systems, Finmeccanica of Italy and EADS for Germany and Spain -- said the overall value of the contract under negotiation would be "in the region of 8 billion euros."
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