DUBAI – Eurofighter, a consortium set up to manage the development and production of the Eurofighter Typhoon weapon system, Tuesday said it expects global demand for the multi-role combat jet to reach 300 over the next 20 years with the Middle East region accounting for almost a half of sales.

“Our estimate for the market over 20 years is the need for 800 fighter jets. For Eurofighter, we are trying to target a total of 300 sales out of this,” Eurofighter chief executive Enzo Casolini told reporters at a roundtable event at the Dubai Air show.

Casolini said that there had been “a lot of interest” from Gulf states in the warplane during the Dubai Airshow, but declined to comment on details.

“All Gulf states have a requirement for a new fighter jet,” he said.

In 2007, Eurofighter which is comprised of aerospace group European Aeronautic Defence & Space Co, BAE Systems and the Italian group of Alenia and Finmeccanica, signed a $7.25 billion deal with Saudi Arabia for 72 Eurofighter Typhoon warplanes.

Casolini said the Kingdom still has a further need to update their fighter jet fleet.

“Why not more for Saudi Arabia?,” he said.

Under the terms of the agreement, the first 24 of 72 the jets will be built in the U.K. with the remainder being produced in Saudi Arabia. Casolini declined to comment on when production could start in the Kingdom but said the construction of the production facility had begun.

So far, six Eurofighter Typhoon jets have been delivered to Saudi Arabia and a further two will be delivered by the end of the year, Casolini said.

Eurofighter expects an order backlog of EUR25 billion by the end of the year and revenue of EUR4 billion, he said.

Source: business.maktoob.com