NEW DELHI: American aircraft major Boeing has announced a decision to establish a JV with premier conglomerate Tatas to carry out defense-related aerospace component work and said it planned to make the promised Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul facility in Nagpur operational by 2009.

Tata Industries Limited and Boeing Company have agreed on a plan to form a joint venture company that will initially have over USD 500 million of defense-related aerospace component work in India for export to Boeing and its global customers, they said in a joint statement. "This joint venture between Tata and Boeing is an important part of our strategy to build capabilities in defense and aerospace," Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata said.

Under the agreement, the proposed JV will be established by this June and begin work on building Boeing aerospace components shortly thereafter. Manufacturing capabilities established within the JV firm would in later phases be leveraged across multiple Boeing programs, including the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition.

On the proposed MRO to be set up at Nagpur as a part of the offset for Air India acquiring 68 Boeing planes, US firm’s President (India) Ian Thomas told reporters here, "We have certainly decided to make the MRO operational by 2009." The US firm has committed to invest USD 100 million in the MRO project, besides investing additionally in a pilot training establishment for Air India as well as another for a school for ab-initio training for pilots.

Maintaining that Boeing was aspiring to be India’s preferred partner, Thomas said his company would showcase a vast range of products at the DefExpo 2008, starting here from Saturday. These include the F/A-18E/F SuperHornet multi-role fighter, P-81 maritime patrol aircraft, the CH-47 Chinook medium-to-heavy lift helicopter, the C-17 Globemaster III strategic lift aircraft, besides some of their simulators.

Boeing had last December signed a ten-year MoU with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, delivering the public sector firm commercial and defense aerospace work worth over one billion dollars. The Boeing India chief said India was a major market for his company as it had Asia’s third largest defense procurement budget.

"In the next decade, India will offer a 10-15 billion market." Thomas said Boeing had already sold 164 aircraft in India in the past three years worth 25 billion dollars. "India will need more than 900 air planes worth 86 billion dollars." Commenting on the JV with Tatas, President and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems Jim Albaugh said in a statement that the agreement represented "another step in our commitment to India and its aerospace industry, while making Boeing products more globally competitive."

In the first phase of the agreement, Boeing would potentially issue contracts for work packages to the JV firm involving defense-related component manufacturing on the Super Hornet for the US Navy and Royal Australian Air Force, CH-47 Chinook besides the P-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft.