MAKE ARMS SALES GREAT AGAIN: Boeing Sees Two-Year Wait for World’s Biggest Fighter Jet Deal.
Boeing is well placed in the race to supply the Indian Air Force with 110 fighter jets, Gene Cunningham, Boeing vice president of global defense sales, told Bloomberg News on Sunday on the sidelines of a security forum in Singapore. The company is a finalist in a separate competition to supply the Indian navy with 57 fighter jets.
“We have gotten to know Indian industry, understand the Indian process,” Cunningham said.
The tender for 110 combat aircraft mandates building at least 85 percent of the order locally. The deal is likely to be at least $15 billion.
Boeing said in April that it would partner with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Mahindra Defense Systems Ltd. to manufacture the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India at a new facility, which can also be used for other requirements. Other companies in the running include Lockheed Martin Corp., Saab AB and BAE Systems Plc.
The Super Hornet is a great jet, and despite its age would be a yuge upgrade from the problematical Russian stuff India has been buying for decades, mostly out of postcolonial pique.
And if that list of suitors is complete, New Delhi isn’t even considering buying Russian jets for once.