Homegrown conglomerate Tata and US aerospace major Boeing on Thursday said they would form a joint venture for carrying out an over USD500 million of defence-related aerospace component work in India.
Tata Industries Limited and Boeing Company have agreed on a plan to form a joint-venture company that will initially include more than USD500 million of defence-related aerospace component work in India for export to Boeing and its international customers, the two companies said in a joint statement.
“This joint venture between Tata and Boeing is an important part of our strategy to build capabilities in defence and aerospace,” Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said.
Under the agreement, the proposed JV will be established by June 2008, and shortly thereafter begin work on building Boeing aerospace components, it added.
“It (the JV) represents another step in our commitment to India, in this case by linking the capabilities and heritages of these two companies, in order to bring real and lasting value to India’s aerospace industry, while making Boeing products more globally competitive,” President and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defence Systems Jim Albaugh said.
Manufacturing capabilities established within the joint-venture company would in later phases be leveraged across multiple Boeing programs, including the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition, the statement added.
In the first phase of the agreement, Boeing would potentially issue contracts for work packages to the
joint-venture company involving defence-related component manufacturing on Boeing’s F/A-18 Super Hornet for the US Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, CH-47 Chinook and/or P-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft, it said.
A research and development centre for advanced manufacturing technologies is also contemplated, the statement said.