Boeing chooses India's lead to run its F-15 program

Pratyush Kumar, president of Boeing India, will now lead his F-15 fighter aircraft program in the United States.

Mumbai: Boeing India president Pratyush Kumar, head of Boeing Company's business development in the country, will now head his F-15 fighter aircraft program in the United States, the chief executive said Monday. aerospace industry in a statement.

Over the last five years, Kumar has led military and commercial units such as Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Boeing Defense, Space & Security and Boeing Global Services in India.

"During his tenure, Boeing launched a burgeoning engineering and technology center in Bangalore to spur innovation, expand its aerospace supply chain, set up a joint venture in Hyderabad with local customers, finalize the selling Apache and Chinook helicopters to the Indian Army and converting the options of the P-8I maritime surveillance aircraft to firm orders, "Boeing said in a statement.

Boeing, which competes with several major global groups to win Indian Air Force combat aircraft orders, is investing millions of dollars to create an ecosystem for the manufacture of its F / A-18 Super Hornets product. in India.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) sent a long-awaited request for information (RFI) on 6 April to global suppliers for the purchase of 110 fighter jets. The order for 110 fighter jets is estimated at $ 15 billion, according to one Bloomberg report.

For possible command of the Air Force, Boeing has forged links with Mahindra Defense System and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), a state-owned company, for the production of F / A-18 Super Hornets. She has also spent millions of dollars creating an ecosystem around product construction in India, creating a network of suppliers.

Kumar had said mint in May, his company's investment in India for the construction of his product here could amount to billions of dollars and depend on the number of devices that the government finally decided to buy.

On the commercial side, Boeing has a strong order backlog from India from domestic carriers. Jet Airways, based in Mumbai, has placed an order for 225 Boeing 737 MAX Boeing aircraft in three separate batches since 2015, which will be inducted over a 10-year period starting in 2018.

SpiceJet ordered in January 2017 205 Boeing aircraft worth $ 22 billion at list price. With the previous order of 55 aircraft and 100 additional 737-8 MAX aircraft, the airline confirmed its orders for 155 aircraft, in addition to the purchase rights for 50 B737-8 MAX aircraft and other large aircraft.

Vistara has agreed to place firm orders worth $ 3.1 billion from Airbus SE and Boeing covering 19 aircraft, including 13 narrow-body Airbuses.

Boeing India has not announced the replacement of Kumar yet.