McNerney was speaking at a one- day aerospace summit, India’s Time to Fly, Boeing held in cooperation with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay in the perspective of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s invitation to foreign global defence companies to come and Make in India.
Significantly, he said, he expected a new requirement for combat aircraft in India in about two years, and Boeing would be willing to make that in India if the numbers justified. He did not name the aircraft but Chris Chadwick, President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security identified the aircraft as Super Hornet.
It may be noted that IAF is placing an order for only 36 French Rafale aircraft against its projected requirement of 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA), and Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha is on record as saying that IAF needs six more squadrons of similar capability aircraft.
But there is something more to what the Boeing Chairman said.
The Indian Navy is in serious discussions with the US Government for the US Navy’s latest aircraft launch and recovery system, the EMALS by General Atomics (GA), for its second indigenous aircraft carrier due out by 2029. All the new US aircraft carriers being built beginning with Gerald Ford class are to be equipped with this system, and the F/A-18 will continue to fly on them for a couple of decades.
If India finally selects the EMALS, the US Government could suggest inclusion of the F/A-18 also, and the combined numbers for the IAF and Navy could justify production with technology transfer.
That could mean somewhere around 200 aircraft for both the IAF and Navy.
Diplomatic sources told India
Strategic that Mr Modi is due to visit Washington on a state visit in March, and apparently, the discussions could include both the EMALS and Super Hornet. No official confirmation is available though.
 The Boeing event was apparently intended to indicate the company’s seriousness for doing business with India, with the Boeing Chairman also disclosing that it could assemble one helicopter in India. IAF recently selected the combat AH-64E and Chinook CH-47F. Some parts for the latter, bomb bay doors for the F-18, and the floor beam for Boeing 787 are already being made in India by different companies. Boeing is also offering a small helicopter to India.
Besides being a major supplier of civil aircraft to airlines in India, Boeing has also done business worth about $10 billion with Indian Government in defence, the other items being the P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft for the Indian Navy and Harpoon missiles for this aircraft as well as IAF’s jaguars assigned for maritime strike role. It has also sold the C-17 Globemaster III aircraft to IAF.
All the deliveries have been on time, and within agreed costs.
McNerney said that the civil nuclear agreement between India and the US had opened the doors for business, and as the relations strengthen, “we get more business and India gets more knowhow,” both to each other’s mutual advantage.
He also said he was impressed with India’s cost-effective space programme, and Boeing was open to use Indian spacecraft for launching small satellites.
The event brought together stakeholders from the Government, industry and academia. The participants included Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) Director General M Sathiyavathy and some experts.
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