Diehl Wins Series Contract for Guided Missile IRIS-T
(Source: Diehl BGT Defence & Co.; issued Dec. 21, 2004)
On December 20, 2004, the contract covering series production of the air-to air guided missile IRIS-T was signed by the Federal Office for Military Technology and Procurement (BWB) and Diehl BGT Defence & Co. KG, a company of the Nuremberg-based Diehl Group.
The BWB acted on behalf of all six European nations participating in the IRIS-T program. The series production contract is worth 1 billion Euro and makes an essential contribution to safeguarding core capabilities at Diehl.
In the IRIS-T program, Germany acts as lead nation and Diehl BGT Defence as prime contractor.
The IRIS-T guided missile was developed in a multi-national European program under the lead of the industrial prime contractor Diehl BGT Defence. IRIS-T is a successor of the Sidewinder missile produced in US license.
The dog fight-optimised IRIS-T will be operational on modern combat aircraft such as the Eurofighter, Tornado, F-16 and F-18 in the air forces of Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Spain and Sweden.
Deliveries of the more than 4.000 IRIS-T guided missiles will last until 2011.
The air-to-air missile IRIS-T is also being considered for a surface-launched role and other forms of air defence.
Diehl once again proves its leading position in missile expertise by winning the contract on series production of IRIS-T.
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