Group to Build Fighter Plane

British Aerospace said Thursday that a four-nation consortium of which it is a member had been awarded a contract to develop a new West European fighter plane.

The company said in a statement that the contract, worth about $10 billion, was signed in Munich, West Germany, on Wednesday by the NATO European Fighter Aircraft Management Agency representing Britain, Spain, Italy and West Germany.

The British Ministry of Defense said Britain would have a 33% share in the project, the biggest West European arms project since World War II.

The new plane would replace Phantoms and Jaguars in the Royal Air Force, it said.

The three other companies participating in the program are CASA of Spain, West Germany’s Messerschmitt-Boelkow-Blohm and Italy’s Aeritalia.