European aerospace and defence (A&D) companies see India as one of the most attractive markets. For these companies, investing and setting up there could provide a solution to some of their problems, such as producing in the dollar zone, manpower costs and the shortage of qualified people in Europe. The big prime contractors such as EADS, Safran, Thales and BAE Systems have understood this. Despite difficulties (legal, socioeconomic, etc.) that put a brake on the aspirations of subcontractors (Recaero and Machaero are exceptions), the setting up of European SMEs could help young Indian A&D companies, and several ways of helping these European SMEs are worth exploring. Apart from prime contractors and industrial groupings like Gifas, it is also in European governments’ interest to help in this. US, Russian and Israeli competitors have already set up in India, some many years ago.