Vying for various military contracts from the country, global aviation major Boeing today said it was eyeing an over 30 per cent share in the USD 100 billion Indian defence market in the next 10 years.
"Looking at the growing Indian defence market, Boeing currently sees a 10-year business potential of USD 31 billion for our company, which includes potential sales of fighter aircraft, maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters and strategic lift aircraft," Boeing Integrated Defense System India head Vivek Lall said here.
Boeing's offerings to Indian defence forces include its F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet fighters, Chinook heavy-lift choppers, Apache AH-64D attack helicopters and C-17 strategic lift aircraft.
"These are all products that dovetail with India's current defence requirements and which Boeing believes it can contribute in a positive way to the India's defence modernisation drive," he added.
After the American companies also started to be considered for defence procurements in India, Boeing has been able to sell eight P-8I maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft for the Indian navy.
The deal worth USD 2.1 billion was signed on January 1 this year.
Lall said that Boeing would be investing USD 630 million in India as part of the mandatory offsets requirements of the Indian defence procurement procedure and has tied up with various Indian public and private sector companies for this.
"We have signed contracts with various companies including Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronic Corporation of India Limited to produce the indigenous equipment for the anti-submarine aircraft," he added.
Commenting on Boeing's estimates about the Indian defence market and the opportunities here, Lall said, "Overall, the potential Indian defence market in these next 10 years could be as high as USD 100 billion, and we believe there are opportunities to partner with Indian private companies emerging into the defence business, to offer defence products and services that have both significant indigenous Indian content and significant international sales potential."
He added that Boeing's focus in India was to forge long term partnerships with the Indian government and the industry.
Commenting on company's offsets plans for the M-MRCA deal, he said, "Boeing and our industrial partners for the Super Hornet in the US, have signed various MoUs with Indian companies and if selected by the Indian government, we will move further on them."
Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet is competing with five other contenders, including the French Dassault Rafale, Lockheed Martin's F-16, Russian MiG-35, Swedish Saab Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon for supplying 126 multi role combat aircraft (MRCA) to the Indian Air Force.
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