Top US defence and aerospace firms show support to Make in India at Aero India 2017

The Dollar Business Bureau

The US-India Business Council led delegation participating at the Aero India 2017, pledged to support the Make In India campaign of the Indian PM. This could be a show of solidarity and the furthering of US-India defence ties. The ongoing Aero India 2017 show at Bengaluru, is playing host to more than 20 senior executives from American aerospace and defence companies.

USIBC is led by George Standridge, VP for Strategy and Business Development for Lockheed Martin and Tom Bell, Senior VP, Boeing.

Some of the top defence executives representing companies like Honeywell, Harris Corporation, Textron Systems, Arconic, Raytheon and Telephonics are also a part of USIBC delegation, a statement released by USIBC said. India enjoys the exclusive tag of ‘Major Defence Partner’ with the US, enabling it to be treated as a priority country for defence deals.

This was reiterated by USIBC Mission co-lead George Standridge, when addressing a seminar on ‘opportunities to integrate India into the global chain’ today. He said, "India is an important partner for the US industry and Aero India is an excellent venue to further discussions in support of Modi’s Make in India and we are committed to sharing knowledge, skills, technology today and in the future.”

Tom Bell spoke of US’s commitment to position India as one of its major defence partners. Ben Schwartz, Director, USIBS Aerospace and Defence, also laid vibrant hopes for the year 2017 with the expectation of taking forward the India-US bilateral defence partnership, especially in areas of defence offset management and communication security.

Defence is a key area of India-US partnership, and a few significant deals have been signed between the two countries, as seen in the recent years. Boeing continues to expand its research and manufacturing in India, creating thousands of jobs in the process. A host of American aerospace and defence organisations have taken keen interest and participated enthusiastically in every edition of Aero India 2017. This shows that India holds great potential for advancing the strategic interests of the US administrations as well as financial interests of its commercial defence corporations.