New Delhi: US defence company Lockheed Martin is pursuing plans to expand offset-related engagement with Indian industry. The effort was highlighted at the company’s seventh annual suppliers’ conference held in New Delhi last week.
In a statement on August 6, Lockheed Martin said that more than 200 Indian companies of all sizes participated in the event, which was co-hosted with the Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers (SIDM) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
During the conference, Lockheed Martin said it shared “new partnership opportunities” with Indian industry and that a “highlight” of these is future defence-offset work linked to the sale of 24 Lockheed Martin/ Sikorsky MH-60R multirole naval helicopters for the Indian Navy (IN).
The governments of India and the United States signed a deal – worth US$2.6 billion – for the sale of these helicopters through the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mechanism in February 2020.
“There is an offset requirement for the [MH-60] programme, and so as part of that Lockheed Martin will put more indirect work over in India. The Rotary and Mission Systems (RMS) team will work with capable Indian companies over the next seven [to] eight years and provide opportunities to the industry to integrate into the global supply chain,” the company said.
