Lockheed Martin looks to increase share of Indian defence market

Buoyed by the Indian Air Force (IAF) response to its C-130 J military aircraft, American defence system manufacturer Lockheed Martin is looking at the possibility of selling the transport planes to other Indian armed forces as well.

Lockheed Martin's vice president for business development George Standridge told PTI in New Delhi, that in the longer term, the company's job was to understand what the future requirement of IAF and other Indian forces would be.

Standridge  was replying to questions on Lokcheed Martin's future plans for Indian defence market and whether it intended to sell the aircraft to other defence forces also.

 After the ahead-of-schedule-delivery of six C-130J aircraft last year, IAF had now initiated the process of procurement of six additional planes.

Observing that C-130J aircraft was well suited to various military as also Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) operations, he said, it was a versatile platform and had a proven record for military as also non-military missions.

Indicating its growing interest in the Indian market, Lockheed recently entered into a joint venture with Tatas for the manufacture of parts of the C-130J aircraft at a newly built facility in Hyderabad.