By IANS
Mumbai : Tata Industries Ltd (TIL) will form a joint venture company with aerospace giant Boeing Co to work in the $500-million defence-related aerospace sector in India and also supply Boeing’s international customers.
Under the agreement signed by Boeing and Tata, the joint venture company will be established by June 2008 and build Boeing aerospace components.
“This joint venture between Tata and Boeing is an important part of our strategy to build capabilities in defence and aerospace,” said Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group, in a statement.
“I look forward to the joint venture becoming a world-class facility in India.”
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.
A research and development centre for advanced manufacturing technologies is also on the anvil.
“I am very excited to announce this agreement,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems.
“It 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.”
Boeing and TIL intend to utilise not only Tata’s existing manufacturing capability but also to develop new supply sources throughout India for both commercial and defence applications.
Manufacturing capabilities established within the joint venture company would in later phases be leveraged across multiple Boeing programmes including the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA).