Boeing Offers To Invest "Billions Of Dollars" If India Buys F/A-18 Fighter Jets

Boeing has offered to invest billions of dollars in India if New Delhi buys the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft, its President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg hinted.

In an interview with Hindustan Times newspaper yesterday, Muilenburg said “We think there is a great opportunity for us to bring Super Hornet to India that will fulfill an operational need, but even more importantly think about it as a capability investment and architect it as a broad industrial investment, build up a supply chain that has industrial capability, not only to design but also to manufacture for the full lifecycle of the products,” he said.

“We see Super Hornet as an opportunity to do that to tie directly into the “Make in India” strategy, he said referring to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's plan of making India a manufacturing hub for international companies.

Muilenburg said that once the government-to-government agreements are in place, the plans to manufacture Super Hornets in India can move fairly rapidly.

“I would not say there is an official offer. This is a conversation we are having with interested parties right now,” he said.

“It could happen quite rapidly. It requires government-to-government agreement. It requires a customer here who makes a decision on projects it wants to pursue. In terms of our ability to execute on the project, to ramp up supply chain and skills base, that is something we can move up on fairly quickly,” he said.