The Kuwait Ministry of Defence signed a contract with Finmeccanica to supply 28 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, the company said Tuesday.
The contract is part of an intergovernmental agreement between Kuwait and Italy, with Finmeccanica leading commercial activities in the country on behalf of the Eurofighter consortium.
In addition to the aircraft, the contract calls for Finmeccanica to provide logistics, operational support, the training of flight crews and ground personnel, and the upgrade of ground-based infrastructure in Kuwait that will be used for Typhoon operations. Personnel training will be carried out in cooperation with the Italian Air Force.
Although the company did not release the contract value, it highlighted this is “the largest contract ever signed by Finmeccanica,” in a statement.
The contract also specifies the most advanced configuration of the Typhoon will be provided to Kuwait which includes the new Electronically Scanned array radar (E-Scan radar). The E-Scan radar was developed by the European EuroRADAR consortium, led by Finmeccanica, the company said.
Kuwait signed the contract after completing flight and technical evaluation of several competing aircraft in the same category.
“This is Finmeccanica’s largest ever commercial achievement. It is an outstanding industrial success with significant benefits, not only for our company and the other Eurofighter consortium partners, but also for the entire Italian aerospace industry,” Mauro Moretti, Finmeccanica CEO and general manager said in a statement.
The Eurofighter consortium, founded in 1986 and based in Munich, Germany, consists of four countries and three partner companies: the United Kingdom (33 percent ownership), Germany (33 percent), Spain (13 percent), Italy (21 percent), BAE Systems, Airbus, and Finmeccanica.