Lockheed Martin is looking to further expand its production capabilities in India if it wins the bid to supply medium transport aircraft for its armed forces, a senior official of the aerospace company said.
Five Indian companies — Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL), Mahindra Group, Adani Defence & Aerospace, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Reliance Defence — are in the fray for the contract and are expected to bring global aircraft manufacturers into the programme. “We have a long partnership with Tata that produces components and empennages of the C-130J aircraft. “So we’re very excited by that.
Lockheed Martin said its proposal would include 12 aircraft in flyaway condition and 48 manufactured in India.
It is a very robust capability that will be expanded in our current bid,” Dan Tenney, Senior Vice President, global business development and strategy, Lockheed Martin, said in response to a question from PTI. “We are looking to expand that capability with production and other things that occur within India,” he said. India has been a great partner in helping to enable advanced capabilities for that aircraft and beyond,” Tenney said. He said if Lockheed Martin and TASL are successful in that bid, the network will be expanded. “So we are looking to do that,” Tenney said.
