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MILITARY Pile TECHNOLOGY
Over the past sixty years, Dassault has delivered more than 7,500 civil and military aircraft to 75 countries, logging some 20 million hours in flight to-date. Since the early '70s, Dassault Aviation has successfully implemented industrial co-operation programmes with no less than 23 countries, be it within the framework of major international endavours as the ATLANTIC, the ALPHA JET, JAGUAR, the FALCON 2000 and the ARIANE European Space launcher, or in various forms of partnership ranging from simple counter purchase to joint development and risk-sharing.
Dassault Aviation's co-operation with Greece started 29 years ago, back in 1973, when the Hellenic Air Force decided to purchase the MIRAGE F.1, thereby establishing a well-proven policy of dual supply sources for its combat aircraft.
In 1985, a second major programme was set-up with the purchase of 40 MIRAGE 2000 EGM/BGM by the Hellenic Air Force. This second programme - named TALOS - was really a quantum leap in terms of size and technology transfer for the Hellenic industry and was, at that time, one of the most ambitious cooperation programme ever devised in Europe for an aerospace contract.
Thanks to TALOS, several Hellenic companies joined the then-restricted users club of computer-assisted design and manufacturing by introducing the CATIA system, developed by Dassault and which has since became a world standard with companies such as Boeing, General Motors, BAE Systems and DaimlerChrysler. In addition, it is of interest to note that TALOS included a first risk-sharing programme for Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) on the FALCON 900EX, covering design, development and production of a part of the aircraft.
In October 1999, Dassault Aviation and HAI signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement aimed at broadening the scope of the co-operation between both companies, taking full benefit from previous partnership on the FALCON and the MIRAGE 2000 but most important of all, aiming at opening new avenues of extended co-operation on the RAFALE new-generation extended omnirole combat aircraft.
In June 2000, the French aeronautical industry, partners of the RAFALE programme (Dassault Aviation, SNECMA and Thales) have submitted a comprehensive proposal aimed at establishing an equal partnership cooperation with the Hellenic industry in the RAFALE programme. The selection of the RAFALE will therefore be fully consistent and legitimate with the long-standing...