 Six years later, Matra Défense and British missile manufacturer BAe Dynamics merged to form Matra BAe Dynamics, a leading weapons manufacturer in Europe as well as the third largest in the world at the time.During February 1999, MHT merged with French aerospace conglomerate Aérospatiale to form Aérospatiale-Matra.On 10 July 2000, Aérospatiale-Matra merged with Spanish aircraft company CASA and German aerospace firm DASA to become part of EADS, which subsequently became the Airbus Group.