Boeing signs MoU with L&T for defence production

Mumbai: The Boeing Company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with engineering giant Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) for joint exploration of business opportunities in the Indian defence sector. The MoU was signed at the Aero India Aerospace Show in Bangalore.

"The MoU with Boeing adds a new, international dimension to our engagements in the strategic sectors of defence and aerospace," said MV Kotwal, senior executive vice president of L&T, in charge of the company's heavy engineering division. "As a major supplier of critical systems to India's defence sector for more than four decades, we have worked closely with the defence establishment in developing and putting into production a range of advanced systems. This new agreement will add depth to our capabilities in the aerospace and defence sectors," he added.

"Our goal is to identify and build strong partnerships with a number of key Indian companies. We are very pleased to announce this agreement with L&T, which we see as a positive example of much more to come," said Mark Sullivan, vice president of international business development, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. "We want to match the best of India with the best of Boeing, to the equal long-term benefit of both," he said.

Through defence production in India, Boeing aims to transform product sales into a springboard for private and public industrial partnerships.

L&T has orders worth Rs3,000 crore ($680 million) from Indian defence forces to be completed over five years, its chairman AM Naik said.

"All the orders are from India. We have to prove ourselves in India first before we can go elsewhere," Naik said at Aero India 2007, where companies such as Boeing Co. and EADS are vying to get a slice of India's defence spending. "It (India's defence sector) has opened up for the private sector now. Unless we do projects for India's army, navy and the air force, we hardly have a chance to export."