DTN News: India May Buy More Than 126 Fighter Jets, Boeing Says
*Source: DTN News / Bloomberg By Kyunghee Park and Liza Lin
(NSI News Source Info) MUMBAI, India - February 2, 2010: India may
order “many more” than the 126 fighter jets it has sought bids for as it upgrade its armed forces, according to Boeing Co.
“I think 126 could be an initial number and there could be many more airplanes than that,” Joe Song, vice president of the company’s defense business, said in an interview in Singapore today. “They see the need to update an ageing fleet.”
Boeing, the second-largest U.S. defense contractor, is competing for the order, which may be worth as much as $11 billion, with companies including Lockheed Martin Corp., and Dassault Aviation SA. The companies submitted bids in April 2008 to supply the jets as the Indian air force modernizes its predominantly Russian-made fleet.
India may decide on the order
by March 2011 as field trials of the planes began in 2009, Defense Minister A.K. Antony has said. Sitanshu Kar, a ministry spokesman, today said he couldn’t offer any immediate comment on buying more jets.
The plan to buy 126 jets is the biggest fighter-plane order in 15 years worldwide, Chicago-based Boeing has said. Boeing’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet is competing with Dassault’s Rafale, Lockheed’s F-16, Russia’s MiG-35, Saab AB’s Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon from a joint venture of Airbus SAS, BAE Systems Plc and Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA.
--With assistance from Vipin Nair in Mumbai. Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy, Neil Denslow
To contact the reporters on this story: Kyunghee Park at +852-2977-6611 or kpark3@bloomberg.net;
Liza Lin in Singapore at +65-6212-1329 or llin15@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Neil Denslow at +852-2977-6639 or ndenslow@bloomberg.net
order “many more” than the 126 fighter jets it has sought bids for as it upgrade its armed forces, according to Boeing Co.
“I think 126 could be an initial number and there could be many more airplanes than that,” Joe Song, vice president of the company’s defense business, said in an interview in Singapore today. “They see the need to update an ageing fleet.”
Boeing, the second-largest U.S. defense contractor, is competing for the order, which may be worth as much as $11 billion, with companies including Lockheed Martin Corp., and Dassault Aviation SA. The companies submitted bids in April 2008 to supply the jets as the Indian air force modernizes its predominantly Russian-made fleet.
India may decide on the order
by March 2011 as field trials of the planes began in 2009, Defense Minister A.K. Antony has said. Sitanshu Kar, a ministry spokesman, today said he couldn’t offer any immediate comment on buying more jets.
The plan to buy 126 jets is the biggest fighter-plane order in 15 years worldwide, Chicago-based Boeing has said. Boeing’s F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet is competing with Dassault’s Rafale, Lockheed’s F-16, Russia’s MiG-35, Saab AB’s Gripen and the Eurofighter Typhoon from a joint venture of Airbus SAS, BAE Systems Plc and Italy’s Finmeccanica SpA.
--With assistance from Vipin Nair in Mumbai. Editors: Anand Krishnamoorthy, Neil Denslow
To contact the reporters on this story: Kyunghee Park at +852-2977-6611 or kpark3@bloomberg.net;
Liza Lin in Singapore at +65-6212-1329 or llin15@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Neil Denslow at +852-2977-6639 or ndenslow@bloomberg.net
No comments:
Post a Comment