Article Posted on : - Sep 27, 2008

HYDERABAD: US aircraft major Boeing today said it sees a huge opportunity in India's multi-billion defence market.

"We are very excited about the defence market in India on the back of the growing Indo-US strategic partnership," Boeing India President Ian Thomas said on the sidelines of a session on India-US Economic Cooperation here.

"Boeing sees itself cornering a 15-20 billion dollar market in defence sector in the next decade. We are actively working with the Indian Defence Ministry to compete for a number of opportunities in defence sector to supply fighter planes, helicopters, defence products and services," he said.

Boeing also looks forward for a USD 105 billion business by supplying more than 1,000 commercial aeroplanes in the next 20 years, Thomas said.

The civil aviation sector here has been growing at a rapid pace and "we want to be part of that," he said.

"We have strong relations with the IISc (in Bangalore) and various IITs for aerospace technologies," he said, adding Boeing also has partnerships with TCS, HCL, Infotech and Infosys for R&D and information technology services.

The growth picture for India is strong and "we see immense opportunities for us by having commercial and defence technologies partnerships here. We are here for a long-term," Thomas said.

"We plan to set up an MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility at Nagpur besides providing training to commercial pilots at Mumbai," he said. (PTI)