Airbus pitches Eurofighter as Portugal’s future option
Airbus told ECOnews the Eurofighter would give Portugal a sovereign defence platform and a role in future European combat systems as Lisbon weighs replacing its F-16s.
Airbus is positioning the Eurofighter as a way for Portugal to join the future of European defence aviation, with Johan Pelissier, the group’s president for Europe, telling ECOnews that the offer goes beyond replacing the Portuguese Air Force’s ageing F-16s. Portugal is weighing options for a programme estimated at around €5 billion and several suppliers are now competing for the deal.
Pelissier said the Eurofighter consortium plans to submit an unsolicited proposal to the Portuguese government by early November. He argued that the aircraft offers Portugal a “sovereign solution”, including control over software, training, operations and maintenance, and said the choice is now no longer limited to a US platform, with three European alternatives also in play: Eurofighter, Dassault’s Rafale and Saab’s Gripen, alongside Lockheed Martin’s F-35.
In the interview, Pelissier said Airbus already has a strong industrial base in Portugal that could support a broader defence partnership. He said Airbus has about 2,000 people in Portugal, including around 600 at Airbus Atlantic in Santo Tirso and about 1,600 in its global business services operations, adding that Portugal now accounts for roughly one-third of Airbus’s European workforce outside its home countries.
He also said Critical FlyTech, Airbus’s joint venture with Critical Software, is already expanding from commercial aviation into defence-related work. According to Pelissier, Airbus has signed a non-disclosure agreement with Critical Software and sees scope to involve Portuguese companies in areas such as combat cloud architecture and collaboration between crewed and uncrewed systems. He added that Tekever is also part of that ecosystem.
Pelissier said Airbus had signed a memorandum of understanding with AED a year ago and has since deepened contacts with Portuguese companies. If Portugal were to select the Eurofighter, he said, Airbus would be able to integrate local partners into future defence technologies, arguing that this would allow Portugal not just to buy a fighter jet, but to “be part of the future”.
Originally published at Eco.pt
