Boeing to strengthen Services and Support division in India

Boeing which had a ‘great’ 2013 and is expecting a ‘bullish’ 2014 is making strategic moves in India by strengthening its Global Services and Support business unit as India acquires more platforms from the US company, besides the C-17 Globemaster aircraft delivered to the Indian Air Force.

Announcing this at a media roundtable, Boeing Vice President (India), Defense, Space and Security, Dennis D. Swanson, said the company is expecting to finalise a number of partnerships and collaborations in 2014- 15, besides enhancing its training initiatives here. One of the programmes it is keenly awaiting approval is the 22 attack helicopters (plus 11 options) and also the follow-on options for the P8.

The India Country Leader of the division, Vinayak Rajagopal, mentioned that efforts are on to support not just the Boeing platforms in India, but others too in terms of integrated logistics, maintenance modification and training and simulation, all of which the company has enormous expertise. One of the highpoints of the division is to bring down life cycle costs. With the Indian Navy on the P8 programme, the company is developing performance based logistics.

As regards the C-17, there is an onsite team of 19 engineers and other staff as part of the Globemaster integrated support programme at the Hindon airbase. The programme is to ensure aircraft availability.