« em: Maio 17, 2004, 04:14:43 pm »
Grosseto, March 16th 2004 - Alenia Aeronautica, a Finmeccanica company, has delivered its first Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft to an operational base of the Italian Air Force. The “Typhoon” called IT002 has in fact entered into service today at the 4th Squadron in Grosseto and will gradually replace the F-104s used for the defence of the national air space. Present at the Delivery Ceremony have been, amongst others, Gen. S.A. Pasquale Garribba, Commander of the Air Squadron, and Carmelo Cosentino, Executive Vice President and General Manager Military Programmes of Alenia Aeronautica. The delivery of the IT002 follows the one of the IT001 occurred last February, whose task is to train the Aircraft Maintenance Division Personnel of the Cameri Base (Novara). Also the aircraft received today by the 4th Squadron of the Grosseto Base is a twin-seater and comes out of the first batch of series aircraft produced by Alenia Aeronautica for Italy (29 out of 121 totally envisaged). In the company’s facilities ready for acceptance are the following two Typhoons, IT003 and IT004. Further single and twin-seaters, are under final assembly line.
The Eurofighter represents the most advanced European fighter developed and produced by Alenia Aeronautica together with BAE Systems for the U.K., and EADS for Germany and Spain. The Italian company which participates in the programme with a share of 19,5%, is responsible for the design and production of the left wing, of the rear fuselage, the design and integration of some on-board systems, of the integration and final assembly of all the aircraft to be delivered to the Italian Air Force. The Typhoon is the result of the combination of vanguard technologies with the most advanced equipment and is very versatile: it is in fact a multi-role figther, capable of carrying out any mission, being able to be re-roled whilst airborne, in any moment. The production of the Eurofighter has been planned in 620 units. In addition to the four partner countries, 18 Typhoon have been ordered by the Austrian Air Force. The aircraft has also been selected by Greece and down-selected by Singapore.
