The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) is Europe's premier and N⁰2 worldwide aerospace and defence company. EADS comprises the activities of the founding partners namely Aerospatiale Matra (ASM) from France, DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) from Germany and Construcciones Aeronauticas (CASA) from Spain. EADS celebrated Day One together with its listing at Munich, Paris and Madrid stock exchanges on July 10, 2000. Today, the company has a workforce of about 100,000 persons and a turnover of 31 billion Euros.

In terms of market share, EADS is one of the top two manufacturers of commercial aircraft (Airbus), No. 1 worldwide in helicopters (Eurocoper), No. 1 in small and medium size military transport aircraft (EADS/CASA), No. 2 worldwide in satellites (ASTRIUM), No. 1 worldwide in civil launch vehicles (ARIANE) and No. 2 worldwide in missile system (MBDA).

The group also holds significant places in regional aviation and transport with EADS/ATR, maintenance with EADS/Sogerma and EADS/EFW and light aircraft with EADS/Socata. EADS also plays a major role in electronic defence systems and in civil and military telecommunications with secured mobile network products and services.