Industry
While European military budgets remain fragmented and massive duplication in research and development exists, the European military industry has made some moves towards consolidation. British Aerospace was widely expected to merge with Germany’s DASA to form the first major European military-industrial giant. Instead in 1999 BAe merged with another British company, GEC's military-industrial businesses (GEC-Marconi), to form BAE Systems which has tended to focus on the Anglo-American market. As a result, in 2000, DASA merged with Aerospatiale-Matra to form EADS. Further consolidation of the smaller military-industrial firms cannot be ruled out.
In 2002 the formation of MBDA brought together the product portfolios of Aerospatiale Matra Missiles (of EADS), Alenia Marconi Systems missiles, and Matra BAe Dynamics to form Europe's No. 1 missile manufacturer and No. 2 globally after Raytheon.
Other major players include
- AgustaWestland
- BAE Systems
- Dassault Aviation
- DCNS
- Diehl BGT Defence
- Eurocopter
- Eurofighter International
- Finmeccanica
- Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace
- Krauss-Maffei
- MBDA
- Navantia
- Nexter
- Patria (company)
- Rheinmetall
- Rolls-Royce
- Saab Bofors Dynamics
- Thales Group
- ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems
- EADS
- Safran
Read more about this topic: European Union Defence Procurement
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