U.S. defence major Boeing on Thursday said it has signed a contract worth $4.7 million with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for supplying equipment for the eight P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft to be delivered to the Indian Navy.
“Under the contract, HAL will deliver the first set of ’weapon bay doors’ to Boeing in Seattle by the end of the year,” Boeing Defence Systems’ India head Vivek Lall told reporters here.
The contract is part of the $640 million offset requirements to be fulfilled by Boeing for the $2.1 billion P-8I deal signed last year.
As per the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP), for any defence deal worth over Rs. 300 crore, the foreign vendors have to invest at least 30 per cent of the deal’s worth in the Indian defence industry under the offsets clause.
“Although HAL provides other equipment for P-8I through its avionics division in Hyderabad, this is the first P-8I offset package that Boeing has directly executed with it,” Lall added.
The first of the eight aircraft is expected to be delivered in 2013.
He said the Indian company was also part of its supply chain for the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft and was supplying bay doors and wiring furnaces for it.
Giving updates on other Boeing programmes in India, Lall said the company was expecting the air force to carry out the field trials of the C-17 transport aircraft by the middle of the year. India recently issued a letter of request to the U.S. for procuring 10 C-17 heavy-lift aircraft.
