Who manufactures the Eurofighter?

The Eurofighter Typhoon has no single manufacturer. It is built by Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH, a company based in Hallbergmoos, near Munich, set up in 1986 to coordinate the program between Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. Its shareholders are the three industrial partners that build it: Airbus Defence and Space, representing Germany and Spain; BAE Systems, for the UK; and Leonardo, for Italy. Public management of the program falls to the NETMA agency, which acts on behalf of the four governments.

The industrial workshare was set in proportion to each nation's initial orders and remains the basis for the work today. BAE Systems manufactures the front fuselage, fin and rudder; Airbus in Germany handles the center fuselage; Leonardo produces the left wing and flaperons; and Airbus in Spain builds the right wing and slats. The parts then travel to four final assembly lines, one per country: Warton (UK), Manching (Germany), Turin-Caselle (Italy) and Getafe (Spain). Each line delivers aircraft for its own air force and, depending on the contract, for export customers such as Austria, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait or Qatar.

The EJ200 engine follows the same cooperative model: it is built by EuroJet Turbo GmbH, a consortium of Rolls-Royce, MTU Aero Engines, Avio Aero and ITP Aero. The radar and main avionics come from Euroradar and EuroDASS, groupings led by Leonardo with participation from Hensoldt and Indra. This arrangement spreads workload and technology among the partners, but also requires multilateral agreements for every upgrade to the aircraft.