In a major initiative to boost Indian air defence, the Indian military aviation giant Hindustan Aeronautics limited (HAl) has announced a tie-up with Boeing and Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS) for manufacturing the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India and pursuing the joint development of future technologies.

Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar, HAl Chairman and Managing Director T Suvarna Raju and Mahindra Defence Systems Chairman SP Shukla exchanged a ‘Memorandum of Agreement for ‘Make in India fighter’ at the ongoing ‘DefExpo’ near here.

In a Press statement, the HAl said ‘the partnership will transform India’s aerospace and defence ecosystem, further building on its ‘Make in India’ successes.

“HAl has always been at the forefront of development in India’s aerospace sector. This partnership with Boeing and Mahindra Defence Systems will create an opportunity to develop capabilities of the aerospace industry and strengthen indigenous platforms in India thereby contributing to the Make-in-India activities”, said T. Suvarna Raju.

“Boeing is happy to team up with HAl, India’s leading company that manufactures combat fighters along with India’s company that manufactures small commercial airplanes, Mahindra. This partnership brings the best of Indian public and private enterprises together with the world’s largest aerospace company, Boeing, to accelerate a contemporary 21st century ecosystem for aerospace & defense manufacturing in India,” said Pratyush Kumar, president, Boeing India.

Future production with Indian partners will involve maximising indigenous content and producing the F/A-18 in India thereby creating a 21st century aerospace ecosystem.

“We are excited about the opportunities that this partnership will provide for us to contribute further to ‘Make in India’ for defence,” said SP Shukla, Group President, Aerospace & Defence Sector and Chairman, Mahindra Defence Systems.

The Super Hornet Make in India proposal is to build an entirely new and state-of-the-art production facility that can be utilised for other programmes like India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme.

This partnership is intended to bring HAl, Boeing and MDS global scale and supply chain, its best-in-industry precision manufacturing processes as well as the unrivalled experience designing and optimising aerospace production facilities to both expand India’s aerospace ecosystem and help realise the Make in India vision.

The plan addresses the infrastructure, personnel training and operational tools and techniques required to produce a next generation fighter aircraft in India. In addition, Boeing will work closely with India industry to ensure they have the very latest technologies, applying lessons learned from the current Super Hornet production line.