Boeing sees 2-yr wait for biggest fighter jet deal

It could be another two years before India picks the winner of the world’s biggest combat aircraft order, according to a senior Boeing executive.

Boeing is well placed in the race to supply the Indian Air Force with 110 fighter jets, Gene Cunningham, Boeing vice president of global defense sales, told Bloomberg News on Sunday on the sidelines of a security forum in Singapore. The company is a finalist in a separate competition to supply the Indian navy with 57 fighter jets.

“We have gotten to know Indian industry, understand the Indian process,” Cunningham said. The tender for 110 combat aircraft mandates building at least 85 per cent of the order locally. The deal is likely to be at least $15 billion.

Boeing said in April that it would partner with state-run Hindustan Aeronautics and Mahindra Defense Systems to manufacture the F/A-18 Super Hornet in India at a new facility, which can also be used for other requirements. Other companies in the running include Lockheed Martin, Saab AB and BAE Systems.

“We’ll throw our hat into the ring,” Alan Garwood, BAE’s director for group business development, said in an interview on Sunday. “We’ve seen the requirement and we’ve said we’ll put some sort of tender in.” The British defense and aerospace company makes the twinengine Eurofighter Typhoon jet.

Garwood said BAE had been making aircraft in India for 70 years, a key advantage given Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s requirement that the new jets be made in India.