Boeing, HAL and Mahindra Defence to make F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft in India

The partnership is aimed at transforming India’s aerospace and defence ecosystem, building on the success of Make in India. Once materialised, the air-force order could be worth $15 bn. Boeing India, President, Pratyush Kumar, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Chairman and MD, T Suvarna Raju and Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS) Group President (Aerospace & Defence), SP Shukla exchanged the ‘Memorandum of Agreement for Make in India fighter’ at the ongoing ‘DefExpo’ formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

Stating that discussions on the tie-up have been going for the last 18 months, Kumar said, the intent of the government and the MoD (Ministry of Defence) was for a strategic partnership to produce a Make in India aircraft. “We scanned the length and breadth of the country and discussed with over 400 suppliers,” Kumar told reporters.

He added the company is teaming up with HAL, the only Indian entity that manufactures combat fighters, and Mahindra, that manufactures small commercial airplanes. “Our partnership with the two companies will enable us to optimise the full potential of India’s public and private sector to deliver next-generation F/A-18 fighter capabilities. Together we can deliver an affordable, combat-proven fighter platform for India, while adding growth momentum to the Indian aerospace ecosystem with manufacturing, skill development, innovation and engineering and job creation.”

Raju said, “This partnership with Boeing and MDs will create an opportunity to develop capabilities of the aerospace industry and strengthen indigenous platforms in India, contributing to the Makein-India activities.” Future production with Indian partners will involve maximising indigenous content and producing the F/A-18 in India for its armed forces. “We look forward to supporting the modernisation effort of our armed forces and achieving economies of scale in the aerospace and defence sector,” added Shukla.

The Super Hornet Make in India proposal is to build an entirely new and state-of-theart production facility that can be utilised for other programmes like India’s Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) programme. To a query, Kumar said a joint venture could be floated over the next few months and added that investments under the facility will be huge. The partnership will bring together the faculties of the companies vis-a-vis global scale and supply chain, manufacturing processes and experience in designing and optimising aerospace production facilities. The F/A-18 Super Hornet is being pitched as the most advanced and least expensive aircraft per flight hour of its kind.