dasa and the spanish aircraft company construcciones aeronáuticas sa agreed to merge with the signature of a memorandum of understanding on 11 june 1999. on 14 october 1999 dasa agreed to merge with aérospatiale-matra to create the european aeronautic defence and space company. 10 july 2000 was "day one" for the new company, which became the world's second-largest aerospace company after boeing and the second-largest european arms manufacturer after bae systems.