US Boeing in talks with Indian Navy to sell F/A-18 fighter Jets
SINGAPORE: Boeing is in talks with the Indian Navy to sell its F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets in a bid to gain a bigger share of the defense market in the South Asian country, the world's biggest arms importer.
A lot of technical evaluation has yet to take place, Gene Cunningham, Boeing's vice president for defense, space and security, told reporters at the Singapore Airshow on Monday. The company is also seeing opportunities for its KC-46 multirole tanker in India and other countries, Cunningham said.
The Navy last year invited proposals for 57 jets for its aircraft carriers, while Air Force is seeking at least 100 planes. Boeing and Saab AB have said both the orders should be combined, which would make it the world's biggest fighter jet order in play. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who plans to spend $250 billion in the coming years on defense equipment from fighter jets to guns and helmets, wants India and local companies to get a share of the deals it enters into by calling on foreign manufacturers to make products locally.
Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corp. and others have said they will produce in India if they win contracts large enough to make investments worthwhile.
Boeing expects the US to decide on the T-X program in mid-2018, Cunningham said. Boeing and Lockheed are vying for a $16 billion opportunity to build the US Air Force's new training jet, with foreign sales set to provide an additional boost.
Rising F-35 production and an aging fleet of trainer aircraft drive plans to build 350 of the T-X jets. SEOUL: A South Korean appeals court on Monday dismissed most of Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong's bribery convictions and cut his prison sentence to a suspended term, ordering his immediate release.
Judges said Lee, vice chairman of the world's biggest smartphone and memory chip maker Samsung Electronics, had been forced to offer bribes to then-president Park Geunhye and her close confidante.
Samsung Electronics, which last week reported record profits, is the flagship subsidiary of the giant Samsung group, by far the biggest of the family-controlled conglomerates known as chaebols that dominate Asia's fourth- largest economy.
The chaebols played key roles in the South's dramatic economic growth but have long had close and sometimes murky ties with political authorities. Commentators said on Monday's decision was in keeping with past lenient legal treatment of their leaders.
At his original trial Lee, 49, was convicted of a range of offences, including bribery, embezzlement, money laundering and perjury in parliament, in connection with the sprawling corruption scandal that brought down Park Geun-hye.
The case centred on payments Samsung made to Park's secret confidante Choi Soonsil, with prosecutors arguing they were intended to secure government favours.
He had been sentenced to five years in jail, making him the first Samsung chief to serve prison time, even though his father was twice convicted of criminal offences and his grandfather was earlier embroiled in scandal.
But the Seoul high court on Monday struck out most of the convictions and reduced the penalty on the remainder to a suspended prison sentence of two and a half years.
The court said Lee had been "forced" to offer Park bribes and there was "no evidence" that Lee explicitly demanded policy favours in return.
"Park Geun-hye and Choi Soon-sil should be seen as the main players in this scandal," said the ruling, read out in court by one of the judges.