Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Italian Takes Over Eurofighter Consortium

Italian Takes Over Eurofighter Consortium
(NSI News Source Info) ROME - May 6, 2009: Alenia Aeronautica executive Enzo Casolini has been appointed head of the Eurofighter industrial consortium, it was announced May 5. Casolini, formerly commercial head for military aircraft at consortium partner Alenia, replaces Aloysius Rauen, who stepped down on April 30. The Eurofighter Typhoon is a twin-engine canard-delta wing multirole aircraft. It is being designed and built by a consortium of three separate partner companies: Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, and EADS working through a holding company Eurofighter GmbH which was formed in 1986. The project is managed by NETMA (NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency) which acts as the prime customer. The series production of the Eurofighter Typhoon is underway, and the aircraft is being procured under three separate contracts (referred to as "tranches"), each for aircraft with successively greater capabilities. The aircraft has entered service with the UK Royal Air Force, the German Luftwaffe, the Italian Air Force, the Spanish Air Force and the Austrian Air Force. Saudi Arabia has signed a £4.43 billion (approx. 6.4 billion c. 2007) contract for 72 aircraft. Born in 1945, Casolini served as an officer in the Italian Air Force. In 1978, he joined the NATO MRCA Management Agency in Munich to work on aircraft equipment qualification. After leaving the Air Force in 1987, he joined Aeritalia - later renamed Alenia Aeronautica - in 1989, where he was appointed senior vice president and head of commercial for Military Air Systems in 2002. Eurofighter also announced that Bernhard Gerwert had been appointed the new chairman of the Supervisory Board. Gerwert, born in 1953, is presently CEO of Military Air Systems, a business unit of EADS Defence & Security and a member of the board of EADS Defence & Security, Eurofighter said in a statement.

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