1986
Partnership
Aeritalia, a Finmeccanica company now part of Leonardo, enters the Eurofighter consortium in 1986; Eurofighter Jagdflugzeug GmbH is the consortium of the UK, German, Italian and Spanish prime contractors that delivers and supports the Typhoon (Leonardo website, History 1960 to 1986 page; UK National Audit Office, Management of the Typhoon Project, HC 755, March 2, 2011).
1992
Partnership
Eurocopter is formed in 1992 by the merger of the helicopter divisions of France's Aerospatiale and Germany's DASA, and becomes Airbus Helicopters in 2014 (Airbus website, Our story page).
Mar 1994
Milestone
The Eurofighter Typhoon DA1 development aircraft makes its maiden flight at Manching, Bavaria, on Mar 27 1994, and the first Eurofighter is delivered to the German Air Force in 2003 (Airbus web story, March 2024).
Jul 2000
Launch
EADS is created on Jul 10 2000 by the merger of France's Aerospatiale-Matra, Germany's DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and Spain's CASA, and is listed in France, Germany and Spain (Airbus web story, July 10, 2025).
Aug 2013
Commercial
Airbus Military delivers the first A400M to the French Air Force on Aug 1 2013; the order book is 172 aircraft, 168 for seven launch nations and four for Malaysia (Airbus Group at a Glance 2013; Airbus Group Registration Document 2013).
Jan 2014
Milestone
EADS is rebranded Airbus Group on Jan 2 2014, and the new Airbus Defence and Space division, combining Airbus Military, Astrium and Cassidian, starts operating on Jan 1 2014 (Airbus Group Registration Document 2013).
Jul 2017
Partnership
France and Germany agree on Jul 13 2017 to develop a future combat aircraft together to replace their current fighter fleets in the long term (German Federal Government, conclusions of the Franco-German Defence and Security Council, July 13, 2017).
Nov 2020
Expansion
Germany's Bundestag budget committee approves about EUR 5.5 billion on Nov 5 2020 for 38 new Eurofighters under the Quadriga project, with deliveries from 2025 to 2030 (German Federal Ministry of Defence, November 6, 2020).
Feb 2022
Launch
Airbus and OCCAR sign the Eurodrone global contract on Feb 24 2022 in Manching, covering development and manufacturing of 20 systems and five years of initial in-service support; OCCAR signs for Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and Airbus Defence and Space GmbH signs as industry prime for the three major subcontractors Airbus Defence and Space S.A.U. in Spain, Dassault Aviation and Leonardo (Airbus press release, February 24, 2022).
Dec 2022
Partnership
France's DGA, for France, Germany and Spain, awards Dassault Aviation, Airbus, Indra, Eumet and their partners the Future Combat Air System Demonstrator Phase 1B contract on Dec 16 2022, worth €3.2 billion over about three and a half years (Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Indra and Eumet joint press release, December 16, 2022).
Dec 2023
Expansion
Airbus A400M: Indonesia orders two aircraft. Not confirmed in a primary source as of 2026-10-29: the Indonesian order, its size and its date.
Jul 2024
Expansion
Airbus announces on Jul 10 2024 that Saudi Arabia has ordered four additional A330 MRTT aircraft for the Royal Saudi Air Force, its third MRTT contract, with the first aircraft entering conversion at the beginning of 2026 and service in 2027; Airbus puts the A330 MRTT at 90% market share outside the USA, with 82 orders from 15 countries (Airbus press release, July 10, 2024).
Oct 2025
Expansion
Airbus announces on Oct 15 2025 that Germany has ordered 20 new Eurofighters, to be built at its final assembly line in Manching with first delivery in 2031 and the last in 2034 (Airbus press release, October 15, 2025).
Feb 2026
Paused
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury says on Feb 19 2026 that the FCAS next generation fighter pillar is at a deadlock over differing governance expectations among partners, while the combat cloud and remote carrier pillars are making progress (Airbus Annual Press Conference 2026, February 19, 2026).
Airbus