AFP, The European Aerospace Defence and Space Company has suggested again that Australia join the Airbus A400M military transport project, an EADS spokeswoman said Wednesday, confirming Australian press reports.
Jean-Paul Gut, director of EADS International, repeated the offer during a recent trip to Australia, the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for Airbus Military Company, the division that oversees the project, said: “Australia is one of our main targets” for the A400M apart from the seven countries participating in the program which have ordered 180 of the future transport planes.
Canberra could take “a significant part in the program”, he added, while declining to confirm a five-percent figure given in press reports.
The A400M's first flight is scheduled for 2006, with deliveries forecast two years later.
