Bangladesh signs up for Eurofighters in first pick of Western warplane

ROME — Bangladesh has signed a Letter of Intent to start talks to purchase the Eurofighter jet - a deal which would make it the first nation outside of Europe and the Middle East to buy the fighter.

The Bangladesh Air Force announced it would negotiate the deal with Italy’s Leonardo, the Italian firm which has handled the marketing of the jet to the Asian country.

“Leonardo will supply Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to the Bangladesh air force under this letter of intent,” the service said.

Local media has suggested Bangladesh would seek to acquire up to 16 Eurofighters, which are built by a four-nation consortium of Italy, Germany, the U.K. and Spain.

The LOI was signed at the headquarters of the Bangladesh Air Force in the presence of Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan and Italian ambassador to Bangladesh, Antonio Alessandro.

If the deal goes through it would mark Bangladesh’s first big purchase of a Western fighter. Another candidate has reportedly been China’s Chengdu J-10C.

Earlier this year, a group from the Bangladesh Air Force visited Leonardo’s facility in Turin, Italy, to test-fly the Eurofighter.

Bangladesh already operates AW109 and AW139 helicopters built by Leonardo.

The Italian firm is also running Eurofighter sales campaigns in the Philippines, where it has proposed a sale of 32 jets, and in Poland.

To date, 769 Eurofighters have been ordered, while ten nations are operating the jet: the U.K., Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——孟加拉国已签署意向书，开始就购买欧洲战斗机进行谈判——如果达成协议，孟加拉国将成为欧洲和中东以外第一个购买该型战斗机的国家。

孟加拉国空军宣布将与意大利莱昂纳多公司就该交易进行谈判，莱昂纳多公司此前一直负责向该亚洲国家推销这款喷气式飞机。

“根据这份意向书，莱昂纳多公司将向孟加拉国空军提供欧洲台风战斗机，”该部门表示。

当地媒体报道称，孟加拉国将寻求采购多达 16 架欧洲战斗机，这些战斗机由意大利、德国、英国和西班牙组成的四国财团制造。

意向书在孟加拉国空军总部签署，空军参谋长哈桑·马哈茂德·汗空军上将和意大利驻孟加拉国大使安东尼奥·亚历山德罗出席了签字仪式。

如果交易达成，这将是孟加拉国首次大规模购买西方战斗机。据报道，另一款候选机型是中国的成都J-10C战斗机。

今年早些时候，孟加拉国空军的一个小组访问了位于意大利都灵的莱昂纳多公司工厂，试飞了欧洲战斗机。

孟加拉国目前已拥有莱昂纳多公司制造的AW109和AW139直升机。

这家意大利公司还在菲律宾和波兰开展欧洲战斗机销售活动，并已提出向菲律宾出售 32 架战斗机。

迄今为止，已有 769 架台风战斗机被订购，而目前有 10 个国家正在运营该型战机：英国、意大利、西班牙、德国、奥地利、科威特、沙特阿拉伯、卡塔尔和阿曼。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。