It is a joint venture by three European aero-engine manufacturers, Germany's MTU Aero Engines, France's Turbomeca and Britain's Rolls-Royce.
MTU Turbomeca Rolls-Royce (MTR) was established in June 1989 as a part of the framework created on behalf of the French and West German governments to developed an advanced multirole battlefield helicopter, the Eurocopter Tiger.
[4] During 1997, the engine programme advanced to the production investment phase; that same year, it was granted civil registration, while military qualification would follow during 1999.
[4] On 18 June 1999, Germany and France publicly placed orders for an initial batch of 160 Tiger helicopters, 80 for each nation, valued at €3.3 billion.
[4] On 22 March 2002, the first production Tiger was rolled out in a large ceremony held at Eurocopter's Donauwörth factory; although production models began initial acceptance trials in 2003, the first official delivery to the French Army took place on 18 March 2005; the first official Tiger delivery to Germany followed on 6 April 2005.